Cait Conley flips NY-17 as Mike Lawler concedes; Westchester starts counting its emergency ballots today

Democrat Cait Conley has unseated Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District, one of the most closely watched House races in the country, after Lawler conceded on election night. The district takes in Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess.

Lawler came out at about 11 p.m. Tuesday at his election night party in Pearl River to say he had called Conley. "When all of the votes are counted tomorrow in Westchester, it's going to be pretty clear that we will be short," he said, according to City & State. He told supporters he believed conceding on election night was "the right thing to do," CBS New York reported.

Just before midnight, Conley spoke to supporters in Pleasantville, in Westchester. "This wasn't a partisan fight, this was a patriotic fight," she said. CBS News said it had not yet projected a winner because the final tally was delayed by the scanner problem.

Why Westchester is still counting

Ballot scanners at polling places across Westchester County would not accept ballots when polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Voters were told to stay in line, fill out their paper ballot and place it in an orange emergency ballot bag to be scanned later, CBS New York reported.

• What went wrong: the state Board of Elections said a change affecting a contest in one municipality required updated programming. Early voting machines and Election Day machines in that municipality got the update, but Election Day machines elsewhere in the county still had the original programming and could not recognize the ballots. The board said it was not a paper, vendor or machine problem, and that the scanners rejected ballots rather than counting them wrong.
• When it gets counted: emergency ballots could not be counted until after polls closed at 9 p.m., County Executive Ken Jenkins said. Video showed police escorting thousands of ballots to the county Board of Elections, where counting was scheduled to begin Wednesday morning, ABC7 New York reported.
• Why it matters here: Westchester makes up about 40% of the vote in NY-17, CBS New York reported. Officials from both parties said every valid vote would be counted.

The state board's unofficial statewide results also note that they do not yet include "a significant number of unscanned emergency Election Day ballots from Westchester County," so county and statewide totals will move in the coming days.

How Conley won

With all of Rockland County counted as of midnight, Lawler was up by just over 8 points there, down from 18 points last cycle, City & State reported, leaving him no room to make up ground in Westchester. Conley, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who served in special operations, tied Lawler to President Donald Trump, who endorsed him three times, while Lawler stressed his independence and his work on the SALT deduction, City & State and CBS New York reported.

The seat was one of several Democrats picked up on a night they won control of both the House and the Senate. For results in the five boroughs, see how New York City voted, borough by borough.