A highly contentious New York State race has been thrown into disarray due to an issue with the "thickness" of voting ballots, which prevented some machines from accepting them. The problem affected voting in Westchester County on Tuesday, potentially delaying the final determination of the winner in the battle for New York's 17th congressional district between incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler and Democrat challenger Kristalina Conley.
The Westchester County Board of Elections initially cited the paper "thickness" as the cause for machines rejecting ballots. The board later revised its alert, removing the specific mention of thickness. Officials assured voters that their ballots would be secure and counted.
Ballots that could not be processed by machines were placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags. The process for counting these ballots is still being determined, and hand-counting them could significantly delay the final results.
The 17th congressional district race is considered a swing district and has garnered national attention. An upper portion of Westchester County is included in the district, which also encompasses all of Putnam and Rockland counties and part of Dutchess County.