Officials in New York’s Westchester County, which includes part of the hotly contested 17th District, reported problems with ballot scanners Tuesday morning.
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is in a tight race with Democratic candidate Cait Conley in the district.
The New York State Board of Elections said the problems with the machines were caused by late changes to one city’s election procedures.
“Changes affecting one city’s races required updated election procedures and subsequent testing and deployment of the city’s early voting and Election Day machines,” the commission said in a statement. “However, Election Day machines elsewhere in the county continued to use the original procedures and were therefore unable to identify and accept ballots used on Election Day.”
“In the meantime, voting will continue through established emergency voting procedures,” the board said. “Intact ballots are being held securely under bipartisan oversight and will be scanned and counted according to established procedures.”
“Every valid vote will be counted,” the board added.
Lawler told reporters Tuesday afternoon that Democrats and Republicans are working together to address the issue.
“We’ve been working in a bipartisan way, Republican and Democratic, both campaigns, two state parties, two national committees, to find a solution with the Westchester County Board of Elections and the State Board of Elections,” he said.
Both Lawler and Conley urged voters to get in line to vote.