‘How the left steals elections’: False cheating claims fly as machine failure risks delayed results in key contest

Widespread voting machine failures in New York’s Westchester County are spurring nonsensical claims from prominent right-wing figures that Democrats are somehow scheming to steal the contest — by suppressing votes in a Democratic stronghold.

Though voting has been proceeding without interruption, the failures could delay Election Day results in one of the nation’s most closely watched House races. That would likely cause a late shift in the vote count toward Democrats, fueling yet more baseless accusations of election fraud.

Heavily Democratic Westchester, just north of New York City, makes up a large part of New York’s swing 17th Congressional District, where Rep. Mike Lawler (R) faces Democrat Cait Conley. If results from the county are delayed, Lawler could appear to lead early before his margin narrows or potentially reverses after Westchester’s totals come in. 

That’s a perfect storm for the kind of false claims about Democratic cheating made by President Donald Trump and his allies in past elections, when GOP candidates have led the count early on — known as a “red mirage” — before Democratic-leaning mail ballots have been added to the tally, shifting the result.

That concern aside, prominent Republicans and right-wing activists were already making accusations of election cheating Tuesday, even as bipartisan election officials assured voters that their ballots would be secured and counted.

“No surprise. The Democrats in NY will do anything and everything to cheat,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), an election denier, posted in response to a report about the malfunctioning voting machines.

Anti-voting activist Scott Presler went further, claiming without evidence that officials were “literally trying to steal the election.”

Katie Miller, a conservative commentator, similarly alleged that the problems showed “how the Left steals elections,” claiming voters were being turned away. 

State and county election officials, however, have repeatedly said voting has continued using paper ballots.

Lawler himself urged voters to continue participating despite the disruptions.

“Every ballot will be counted. Stay on line and vote. Do not leave the polling place without voting,” he said.

Conley similarly reassured voters not to be discouraged, emphasizing that election officials were working to resolve the problem in a bipartisan manner.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said her office was monitoring the situation and coordinating with state and local election officials.

“Westchester voters can still safely fill out and turn in their ballots at their polling locations,” James said. “Your votes will count.”

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins called the failures “unacceptable” and promised a bipartisan review of what went wrong.

The disruptions began shortly after polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday, when ballot scanners across Westchester began rejecting completed paper ballots — it isn’t clear why.

The bipartisan Westchester County Board of Elections confirmed the countywide problems and instructed poll workers to continue accepting ballots. Completed ballots that cannot be scanned are being placed in designated orange emergency bags, which officials said would remain secured and monitored until they can be counted.

“Every eligible vote will be counted,” the board said, urging voters to stay in line.

Ballots collected through emergency procedures will need to be processed separately from those successfully scanned at polling places, potentially delaying Westchester’s reporting. The secured ballots would be transported to the county Board of Elections after polls close and counted before machine-scanned ballots.

Officials have not established exactly when all affected votes will appear in unofficial results or how many ballots will require emergency processing.

New York already has established procedures for handling ballots that scanners cannot process, including bipartisan oversight of the counting process. Delayed tabulation under those procedures is not evidence of fraud.