US election: Voting machine glitches disrupt polling in Pennsylvania, New York

06-11-2024 Wed 06:01 | International | IANS

New York, Nov 6 : Polling was disrupted on Tuesday in New York and Pennsylvania, because of problems with voting machines, according to officials.

Glitches were reported in two counties in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, and in two places in New York's Queens Borough.

Pennsylvania's Department of State, which oversees elections said in an X post that it was working with election officials in Cambria County to fix the problem.

The Bedford Gazette reported on Facebook that there were "issues with voting machines" in Bedford County.

It quoted the county's election office as saying "the issues have been identified and are being addressed by support teams".

WABC TV reported that there were glitches with the voting machines in Flushing and St. Albans in Queens.

It reported that the New York Board of Elections said that the problems were being fixed and voters can leave their paper ballots at the polling stations and they will be counted.

Pennsylvania Department of State said in its post on X that "voters are continuing to vote by paper ballot" in the affected places.

The Tribune-Democrat newspaper reported that the Cambria County Board of Elections has asked a court to extend the polling hours because of the disruption and that, meanwhile, voters can drop off paper ballots that will be secured and counted manually.

Republican Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris are in a virtual tie in Pennsylvania, one of the seven swing states that can determine the winner with a small number of votes.

While the other states divide virtually equally between the two parties, votes in these seven states can go either way.

The US does not have a national body to conduct the elections or impose uniform standards and states use different machines of their choosing.

In-person voting began on Tuesday across the nation.

By then, about 81 million voters of the total electorate of 186.5 million -- about 43 per cent -- had already cast their ballots through the early voting process.