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Trump allies accuse Democrats of stealing elections after ballot scanner problems in New York's Westchester County
Trump allies accused Democrats of election fraud after Westchester scanner problems, but officials blamed a programming error and assured voters.
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Allies of US President Donald Trump have accused Democrats of trying to steal the election after ballot scanners stopped accepting paper ballots in Westchester County, New York. However, county officials said the problem was caused by a programming error, not election fraud, and assured voters that every valid ballot would be counted.
The issue affected ballot scanners across most of the county on Tuesday, Election Day. Officials explained that a change to a local election contest had not been properly updated in the machines, leaving them with outdated programming.
The malfunction became a topic of concern among prominent Trump supporters, who used the incident to make claims of election cheating on social media.
What caused the ballot scanner problems in Westchester County?
Deep Dive
According to Westchester County officials, the problem started after a change was made to a local election contest in one municipality. Most ballot scanners across the county were still using older programming and could not read the updated paper ballots.
The machines rejected ballots they could not recognise instead of counting them incorrectly. Officials said voters could continue filling out paper ballots and place them in orange emergency ballot bags. These bags would remain secure and monitored until the votes were counted.
The New York State Board of Elections later explained that emergency procedures had been put in place to protect the ballots. The scanner problem did not mean that voters were unable to cast their votes.
Republican Representative Mike Lawler, who was seeking re-election in New York's 17th Congressional District, also urged people not to leave polling stations without voting.
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"Every ballot will be counted, and everybody should be rest assured that their vote will count," Lawler told CNN at a polling site where he cast his vote.
Democratic candidate Cait Conley also asked voters not to be discouraged by the problem. She said election officials were working on the issue in a bipartisan manner.
Why did Laura Loomer, Katie Miller and Claudia Tenney accuse Democrats of election fraud?
Despite the explanation from officials, several Trump allies used the scanner problem to suggest that Democrats were trying to manipulate the election.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer claimed on X that Democrats were already trying to steal the New York election.
"Democrats are already trying to steal the election in New York today," she wrote.
Katie Miller, a conservative podcast host and former Trump administration official who is married to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, also accused Democrats of election interference.
"This is how the left steals elections," she wrote on X.
Republican Representative Claudia Tenney made a similar allegation, blaming Democrats for the scanner malfunction.
"The Democrats in NY will do anything and everything to cheat," Tenney wrote.
However, none of the three provided evidence that the scanner problem was linked to an attempt to manipulate votes.
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Why are claims of election fraud being questioned in Westchester County?
The allegations have also raised questions because Westchester County is a strongly Democratic area, making claims that Democrats deliberately disrupted voting difficult to support.
According to CNN's analysis by Aaron Blake, Kamala Harris won Westchester County by 26 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election. It was the fifth-most Democratic county in New York, behind three New York City boroughs and Tompkins County.
The county's role in the congressional race also raises questions about the allegations. The part of Westchester County included in New York's 17th Congressional District was the only county area that Lawler lost in the 2024 election.
This means that deliberately preventing people from voting in Westchester would not obviously benefit Democrats. The scanner problem also did not stop officials from collecting ballots.
Another important detail is that New York uses paper ballots. The scanners are used to count those ballots, not to record votes directly. Officials can securely store ballots that cannot be scanned and count them later.
The incident therefore provided no evidence of election fraud, despite claims from prominent Trump supporters.
