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Voting machines in Westchester County, New York, stopped accepting paper ballots at polling places across the county on Tuesday, in an area that includes part of a closely watched House race. The malfunction drew unsupported claims of election fraud from pro-Trump influencers, while state and county officials said every ballot would be counted.
The Westchester County Board of Elections said it was aware of a problem with paper ballots that kept machines from accepting them at polling locations throughout the county.
Voters’ completed ballots were instead placed in emergency bags. The board said it wanted “to reassure every voter that your vote matters, your ballot will be secure and your vote will be counted.”
The New York State Board of Elections said on X that there had been no disruption to voting. It said “long-established emergency ballot procedures” had been put in place, under which completed ballots are secured under bipartisan control and will be counted.
In a later statement, the state board tied the problem to machines being unable to read and accept the ballots. It said the affected scanners rejected ballots they could not properly recognize “rather than incorrectly tabulating them.”
Parts of Westchester County fall within New York’s 17th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is seeking to hold his seat against Democrat Cait Conley. The district voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, which makes the contest a hard fight for the incumbent in this year’s midterms.
Several pro-Trump figures seized on the malfunction, claiming without evidence that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election. They included conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, conservative activist Scott Pressler, and Katie Miller, a podcaster who is married to White House adviser Stephen Miller.
The claims echo earlier ones from President Donald Trump and his allies, who have previously spread unproven assertions that voting machines are faulty or unreliable. Trump has also disputed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.
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