It’s early Thursday morning, the second day after the election on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
We still have no idea of the election-day ballot counts from Tuesday, what went on that caused this debacle and who, in the end, is finally going to stand up and take some responsibility.
The Westchester Board of Elections (WBOE) is not a county agency. It is part of the New York State government apparatus. It is run by two commissioners, a Democrat and a Republican: Tajian M. Nelson, the Democrat, and Douglas A. Colety, the Republican. The communications from the WBOE has been and continues to be entirely, woefully, and painfully absent.
County Executive Ken Jenkins, local media, and others stepped in to fill the communications vacuum at a time when these two should have stepped forward in a bipartisan shoulder-to-shoulder manner and explained what the hell was going on.
That didn’t happen. Instead the County Executive and local media had to perform the opening act, the poor schlubs that warm up the audience before the main event. It’s a deeply dissatisfying experience for everyone.
Since Tuesday morning there have been a total of two statements issued directly from the WBOE – during a real and true election crisis . The first statement, sent Tuesday morning around 8:15 a.m., contained an error, mistakenly saying the issue involved the thickness of the paper ballots (a correction only fanned the flames, causing all of us to question more what was going on).
Then nothing more from the WBOE. Nothing all day long on Election Day.
The second statement came after midnight, at 12:40 a.m. in the morning. It ended “We remain committed to protecting the integrity of the election and ensuring that every lawful vote is counted.”
Then nothing more from the WBOE.
Nothing all day long on Wednesday.
No communications regarding update on ballot counts from Election Day.
No indication about the pace of ballot counting, no indication about what percentage of ballots have or have not been posted onto the WBOE’s online reporting, no indication about when they expect to complete the count.
The Great News
The great news is we live in a democracy and this is all going to be fine. It’s all going to be worked out in a peaceful and orderly manner. We should be deeply, deeply grateful for this. But this should never happen and the people responsible need to stand up, provide an explanation, and take their lumps.
