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Voting machine snafu may delay results in NY House race between Lawler, Conley
By
Karen Yi
and
Jon Campbell
Published Nov 3, 2026 at 7:57 p.m. ET
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images and Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
By
Karen Yi
and
Jon Campbell
Published Nov 3, 2026 at 7:57 p.m. ET
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Malfunctioning voting machines in Westchester County could delay results in one of the country's most closely watched congressional races, which could decide whether Democrats take back the House of Representatives.
The battleground 17th Congressional District race between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and his Democratic challenger Cait Conley includes parts of Westchester, just north of New York City, where a software glitch prevented scanning machines from tabulating thousands of paper ballots as voters went to the polls on Election Day.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said late Tuesday that it’s unclear whether those ballots would be counted before the end of the day as both parties seek a joint court order to determine a protocol.
“ Right now they have not determined whether or not they are going to count them tonight,” Jenkins said on WNYC’s All Things Considered around 5:30 p.m. “That is a little up in the air.”
Jenkins said both campaigns want to make sure they can properly oversee the counting.
Conley, a former Army officer and counterterrorism official, hoped for strong turnout in the parts of the district in northern Westchester County, which backed Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 25 points in the 2024 presidential election.
The New York Board of Elections said the voting snafu stemmed from some scanning machines not getting a needed programming update, preventing them from reading and recognizing the paper ballots. Ballot reading software was updated in machines in a single Westchester municipality but was not made elsewhere in the county
The BOE said ballots were collected and secured in bags until they could be properly scanned and counted
“Accuracy will never be sacrificed for speed,” the BOE said in a statement.
In a phone interview with Gothamist, Conley said her campaign was working to ensure the process's security and integrity.
“ As a candidate, of course you want to get the results sooner than later, right?” Conley said. “But at the end of the day, what matters is voters having their voices heard. And so right now, what we need to focus on is how do we ensure in a bipartisan way that we get to an outcome where every single vote is counted.”
Lawler’s campaign did not return a request for comment. But in a press conference earlier in the day, Lawler said he expected the counting to be done tonight.
“ I would suspect, you know, we're gonna be in the early morning hours when we get an answer. But the bottom line is we need to have an answer tonight,” he said.
The race between Lawler and Conley was one of the most expensive in the country in both candidate and outside spending. Lawler’s political base is in Rockland County, where strong turnout in past elections helped propel him to victory.
The national Democratic Party has tried to oust Lawler since he was first elected in 2022 in a district with more enrolled Democrats than Republicans. He was one of only a handful of Republicans who won their seat last cycle despite voters in their congressional district supporting Harris for president.
Lawler tried to stress his independent streak, highlighting times he’s opposed President Donald Trump. At the same time, he campaigned alongside Trump and voted for his signature “One Big Beautiful Bill” tax cut.
Conley sought to tie the two together at every opportunity, calling Lawler a “puppet” of the president. She won a crowded primary in June to challenge the Republican incumbent.
Jenkins said Westchester County would conduct a thorough review of what caused the problem with ballot scanning machines so it does not happen again.
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new york
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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