Westchester County Ballot Machines Reject Votes in Key New York House Race
The machine failures come as Republican Rep. Mike Lawler faces a tough reelection challenge from Democrat Cait Conley in New York’s 17th Congressional District.
Machines in New York’s Westchester County have rejected ballots, potentially causing chaos in a key House race.
“Ballots will be placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which will remain secure and monitored,” the Westchester County Board of Elections said. “These ballots will subsequently be counted in accordance with applicable election procedures.”
Oh, boy. Officials originally said the machines didn’t accept the ballots due to the paper thickness.
Axios said officials have removed that tidbit from their statement.
The New York State Board of Elections blamed “an update to the county’s election program” even though people tested the machines before Election Day.
Northern Westchester County belongs to New York’s 17th District, currently represented by Republican Mike Lawler.
Lawler is in danger of losing his seat to Democrat Cait Conley.
But Lawler hasn’t brought up any conspiracy theories. Instead, he encouraged people to stay in line:
To every voter in Westchester County: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR POLLING PLACE UNTIL YOU VOTE.
Every ballot will be counted and we are already in court to make sure they are counted in **one central location** so that our campaign, election monitors, and our attorneys can watch and oversee the process.
I have confidence that every vote will be counted — just VOTE and have your voice heard.
To every voter in Westchester County: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR POLLING PLACE UNTIL YOU VOTE.
Every ballot will be counted and we are already in court to make sure they are counted in **one central location** so that our campaign, election monitors, and our attorneys can watch and…
— Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) November 3, 2026
But the malfunctions have worried some voters.
“It’s all through Westchester County that all these machines are down,” voter Linda Giaimo told Fox News. “So now we’ve got to put our vote in a bag and believe that that bag is going to be delivered. I got a problem with this.”
Don’t worry! New York Attorney General Letitia James has her office monitoring the situation:
Westchester voters: please stay on line. Polls are open, and your vote will still count. The Board of Elections is working to fix technical issues with ballot scanners at some polling sites, and my office is monitoring the situation.
If you have any questions or need help, call the Office of the Attorney General’s Election Protection Hotline at (866) 390-2992.
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Comments
Move along folks nothing to see here…
The steal is on. Irregularities, don’cha know.
There’s no steal. Whatever this is, it’s more likely to hurt the Democrats than the Republicans, so they wouldn’t have done it.
Come now, Milhouse. Certainly you’re familiar with “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
Broken machines create an opportunity to introduce manufactured votes. How? I don’t know. I’m not familiar enough with the process. But you know who is? The Dems collecting and counting the ballots. They know all about that sort of thing. But they would never, ever take advantage of broken machines if they presented an opportunity to cheat. Right?
Sickening, just sickening.
“The New York State Board of Elections blamed “an update to the county’s election program” even though people tested the machines before Election Day.”
Sure. Let’s test everything. Then, on Election Day, let’s do s*t we’ve never done before, in combinations that were not on the menu!
What a surprise, it’s Maricopa County all over again
Only if Maricopa’s repeated woes over the years have really been innocent mistakes as the county officials insist, and not Democrat sabotage as most Republicans suspect.
Because in this case it makes no sense for it to be Democrat sabotage.
How often do these problems arise in places where the Republicans are a lock (or the Dems, for that matter)? They seem to always take place in districts/States where races are so close, a relatively few votes (manufactured and/or not counted) can make a difference in the outcome. And not only that, but happen repeatedly, even if only at the State level?
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
Auric Goldfinger
Goldfinger (Ian Fleming)
Look who forgot so quickly about Maricopa sabotaging their voting machines a couple of years ago.
How could I have forgotten about it when I explicitly replied to your comment about it and referred to it?
As I said, most Republicans suspect that Maricopa’s woes have been the result of Democrat sabotage, and not innocent mistakes as county officials insist. We have no proof, but it’s something we suspect. If true, however, that would make them very different from this case, which was certainly an innocent mistake because it makes no sense for it to have been Democrat sabotage.
No way that a Purple ish County in a deep Blue State would experience ‘unexpected’ election day issues especially when the County includes the only GoP held d+ CD in the entire State which may prove pivotal to control of HoR. /S
The amount of excuses for non operational election day equipment is running thin. Either the elections officials performed their duty to ensure equipment is functional or they didn’t …and if they didn’t why would anyone have any faith they can/will successfully resolve the issues in a nonpartisan way? Now if the State of NY relieved these incompetent elections officials of their responsibilities for cause, put them into protective custody for their own safety and sat down with the political parties and candidate campaigns to arrive at a mutually agreeable way to proceed that was 100% transparent (immediately) to the public …then sure we should cut some slack… otherwise though the usual one way direction of these sorts of ‘problems’ undermines any case for extending grace and instead leads to an inevitable public presumption of shenanigans. Creating and maintaining that presumption and the distrust of officialdom is untenable in the long term and its been going on a long time so no whining about conspiracy theories when your own failures birth and sustain them.
It is not a “purplish” county. It’s bluer than most of the state. The Dems are not going to sabotage their own stronghold.
Is it? Huh sure Ill take your word for it. Maybe I’m confusing the County with Lawler’s CD which is reportedly only at d+1 v most other d +CD which seem to more like +5 or even greater d/prog advantage.
Lawler’s district does include the northern part of Westchester, but it’s mostly Rockland, Putnam, and a bit of Dutchess.
Ok thanks for the clarification. I don’t have a very good grasp of CD lines in NY (obviously). I’ll probably continue to make mistakes re County/District for North Eastern States but when I do please tell me.
Lawler’s district covers part of Westchester and 2 other counties. The other 2 are solidly red, while Westchester has gone roughly 50/50 to mostly red the last 30 years. Safe to say we will not know who wins the seat (and perhaps which party controls the house) for days.
Not really. All the unscanned ballots are being counted at a central location under the careful scrutiny of both major parties. If they can get some scanners running in that location by tonight they can scan everything within a few hours.
Big Tish is on the case. Everyone can rest easy justice will be done.
No doubt the employees of the election board are SEIU members in good standing.
No, they are Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), Local 1000, Unit 9200. CSEA is not nearly as left-wing as SEIU. For instance, in today’s election the CSEA endorsed moderate Republican congressman Andrew Garbarino (NY-2), and state senator Anthony Palumbo (NY SD-1)
“CSEA is not nearly as left-wing as SEIU”
That’s like saying that Saturn is not nearly as big as Jupiter.
I’m sold, let’s plan our next cruise.
Union is union.
Because of course they did.
“Ballots will be placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which will remain secure and monitored, election board official said while winking and smirking with crossed fingers.
For very good reason. All you people who are suggesting — or outright asserting — that this is some sort of Democrat plot against Lawler have no idea what you’re talking about.
This malfunction, whatever it is, is happening not just in Lawler’s district but in the entire county. And Westchester County is a solid Democrat stronghold. Other than Albany County and four of the five counties of NYC, Westchester is their strongest county in the state. The County Executive, the DA, and the County Clerk are all Dems, as are 15 out of 17 county legislators! Kamala Harris carried the county by 26 points. Biden carried it by 36 points, and Hillary Clinton did by almost 34 points. When the Clintons decided to move to NY so Hillary could run for the senate, they bought a house in Westchester County.
With a governor’s race that is at least in some doubt, there is no way that Democrats are going to sabotage themselves in their own stronghold.
Meanwhile, Lawler’s district does include the northern part of Westchester, but it’s mostly Rockland, Putnam, and a bit of Dutchess. And there’s no malfunction in those counties. So whatever it is, it’s not a plot against him.
And really there’s no difference between depositing your ballot in the scanner and depositing it in an emergency box to be scanned later. Both major parties made a joint application in court this morning for an order that all unscanned ballots shall be transported to a central location where they can be scanned under the careful supervision of both parties, rather than being scanned in the individual locations. So there will be complete transparency and no opportunity for shenanigans.
I guess you can say this this is the most secure election ever — aside from 2020, of course.
No, we’re not. At least, I’m not making that assertion. I’m asserting the if there’s a problem, the Dems may have a plan to take advantage of it. For all we know, they wargame a variety potential election day problems and study them to determine if they can be turned to advantage. The problem itself doesn’t have to be “planned” for it to be “part of a plan.” Be prepared. Wait. If the opportunity arises, execute the plan. Dems are not too stupid to do this, no matter how stupid the rank and file may seem.
It’s called experience, Millhouse. We’ve seen way too many times that this stuff just happens when communists need it to.
Get rid of the damn voting machines, apparently no one knows how to test or operate them efficiently. There seems to always be a problem with them every election.
We sent men to the moon but can’t reliably build a machine to count votes. The machines open the door for election fraud.
We stopped sending men to the moon and we stopped having secure elections. Coincidence?
We didn’t have secure elections before either.
In NYC elections now are not secure, but they’re a lot better than they used to be with the old kachunka machines, where not only was there no check beyond a signature match on who could vote, but there was no record of an individual vote, and no way to recreate it, or to recount the votes on any single machine. You just had to trust the number on the back. And being NY there was no way it was not tampered with.
If those running the machines are incompetent, why aren’t they fired? If the machines are unreliable, why aren’t they replaced? It seems to me that the answer to both questions is “Someone wants the people and machines to act they way they do.”
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