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.
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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.
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