NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Election officials in New York’s Westchester County were racing to address an issue that caused voting machines to reject paper ballots, a snafu that raised the possibility of delays in determining the winner of a key US House race.
Early Tuesday, the Westchester County Board of Elections said that it was aware that voting machines were rejecting paper ballots. The board initially attributed the issue to a problem with the thickness of the paper that the ballots were printed on, though it later backed off that explanation.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a post on X that state election officials identified the cause of the issue and were “working to restore scanner access at every poll site.” The New York State Board of Elections said the problem has been caused by “an update to the county’s election programming” after initial preparation and testing of Election Day voting equipment.
Parts of Westchester County are in New York’s 17th Congressional district, one of a handful of swing seats in New York, where incumbent Republican Representative Mike Lawler has been in a tight race with Democrat Cait Conley. The outcome could help decide which party ultimately controls the House of Representatives.
Both Lawler and Conley posted on social media urging their supporters to remain in line and vote. At a news conference Tuesday, Lawler said that his campaign and Conley’s were working with election officials “in a bipartisan way” to come to a solution.
“Every vote is going to be counted and it’s going to be counted tonight,” Lawler said. When asked whether he was confident in the integrity of the election, he said, “I am.”
Conley said in an interview that she supported moving the ballots that were cast during the outage to be counted at a central location with bipartisan oversight, echoing Lawler’s earlier comments. She said she’s been out encouraging people not to let the noise distract them and to come out and vote.
“I believe we are going to find a way forward that preserves the security and integrity of this process and ensures every vote cast is counted,” Conley said.
The technical crackup caused some voters to have to cast their ballots using emergency procedures. Election officials said voters should continue to complete their ballots as instructed by poll workers.
“Ballots will be placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which will remain secure and monitored,” the County Board of Elections said in a statement. “These ballots will subsequently be counted in accordance with applicable election procedures.”
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said in a video posted on X that some candidates and campaigns had asked that voting hours be extended, though he said there wasn’t yet a need to do so. Jenkins said county and state election officials would make a determination if polls needed to stay open for longer than planned. Polls are scheduled to close at 9 p.m. local time in New York.
Jenkins later said at a news conference that the ballot issue was caused by “some kind of glitch from our printer.” He called the situation “unacceptable” and said officials were “working through this problem feverishly.”
Machines at polling locations throughout the county are being updated to process ballots correctly, Jenkins said.
Westchester County’s Democratic voters outnumber registered Republicans nearly 3 to 1. The county has 342,767 registered Democrats, 131,791 registered Republicans and 192,555 voters registered with no party affiliation, according to enrollment statistics from the State Board of Elections.
Inside the 17th Congressional district, Democrats are heavily concentrated in Westchester and Rockland Counties. More than 42% of the district’s registered Democrats live in Westchester.
Westchester is also covered by the 16th Congressional district, where incumbent Democrat George Latimer is facing Republican Joseph J. Cinquemani in Tuesday’s election.
Ahead of Election Day, 120,809 ballots were cast in Westchester County across New York State’s nine days of early voting, according to the New York State Board of Elections.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com.
