U.S. voting glitches fuel worries and election conspiracies

Election officials reported a typical array of glitches at polling places across the country today, some serving as provocative fodder for right-wing conspiracy theorists.

Local and state officials described them as the type of unfortunate but innocent hiccups — malfunctioning scanning machines, local power outages, false fire alarms — that commonly emerge on Election Day.

Any potential issues are sure to be under a microscope after attempts by the Trump administration to exert more control over federal elections. With the president continuing to make false claims that the electoral process is rife with fraud, officials across the country have grown increasingly concerned about interference.

State and local officials entered Election Day concerned that minor problems could be seized on by the president and his allies to seek to overturn results. And as expected, false claims quickly circulated as the typical glitches emerged.

Some of the first reported problems were in Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City. Voting proceeded despite a malfunction that prevented some scanning machines from accepting ballots, state election officials said. A hand count might be required for some of them.

In Broward County, Florida, technical problems delayed the scheduled 7 a.m. poll opening time by 20 minutes, prompting some early arrivals to leave polling sites before casting their ballots. Joe Scott, the county election supervisor, said such problems are “to be expected” on Election Day.

As news of glitches seeped online, conspiratorial messages began bubbling up. Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of President Donald Trump’s most powerful aides, made note of the Westchester problems on social media, declaring, “This is how the Left steals elections.” She also falsely claimed that officials were turning away voters in the New York suburb.

In another post, Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and informal adviser to Trump, wrote, “How is it that so many states are all of a sudden having ballot counting issues? Broward County. Of course. Democrats love cheating.”

“If anything happens with the election, people immediately go to conspiracy theories,” Scott said.

In New York, the state’s Board of Elections said in a statement that the issue affecting voting machines in Westchester stemmed from a programming mistake; it was “well within the world of possibilities that election officials plan for,” said Derek Tisler, a lawyer with the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program who specializes in election administration and security.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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