Michael Lawler

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Incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler conceded to Democratic challenger Cait Conley in New York’s hotly contested House race in a critical blow for Republicans on Tuesday night.

The GOP congressman bowed out just before 11 p.m. as Conley, 41, was up about five points with 57% of the vote counted in a contest that was thrown into chaos over lagging ballot machines.

“All I can just say to you is thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Lawler, 40, told his supporters in Rockland County.

“This won’t be the end of it. We live in the greatest country in the world and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” he added.

Lawler’s announcement capped a chaotic day in the closely-watched and highly contentious race, which faced widespread ballot machine malfunctions that delayed vote counts almost immediately after polls opened.

A Westchester judge late Tuesday reportedly signed an order to give officials until 11 a.m. Wednesday to begin tallying the uncounted ballots, citing the long hours already logged by election workers at the polls.

The judge also explained it would be difficult to assemble the dozens of staff needed to properly oversee the count, NBC reported.

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“When all the votes are counted tomorrow in Westchester, it’s going to be pretty clear that we will be short,” Lawler said Tuesday night.

“It’s something that I have never been afforded in any of my elections, a concession on Election Night and it’s something I fundamentally believe is the right thing to do.”

Trouble started brewing early Tuesday after counting machines across Westchester County began rejecting ballots, causing confusion as workers raced to identify the issue and frustrated voters found themselves trapped in huge lines.

The district is one of New York’s few swing districts, meaning a win from Democrats could tip the balance of power in Washington.

Both candidates spent the day assuring voters their votes would be counted despite the snafu.

“Every vote is going to be counted, and it’s going to be counted tonight,” Rep. Lawler said Tuesday afternoon, later insisting there were no “shenanigans” afoot.

“There be no question, there be no conspiracy theory, and every vote is counted. To me, that is paramount,” he told reporters.

The county Board of Elections initially said the paper “thickness” was causing the machines to spit the votes back out, only to backtrack. The state BOE later chimed in and blamed the machine programming.

“The issue affecting voting machines throughout Westchester County resulted from an update to the county’s election programming that occurred after initial preparation and testing of Election Day voting equipment,” the state BOE said.

One municipality required the updated programming for early voting, but the rest of the county was using the original programming and caused the machines to “not recognize and accept the ballots being used for Election Day,” the BOE said.

Westchester was deploying the correct media on Tuesday to restore scanning capability to at least one voting machine in every polling location to correct the issue.

The rejected ballots were placed in secured orange emergency ballot bags, that were not permitted to leave the sites at which they were cast until 9 p.m., officials said.

At that time, they were to be transported under bipartisan oversight to a BOE location in White Plains and processed through ballot machines like normal, the BOE and Lawler explained.

“There’s a glitch in Westchester. The good news is that Democrats and Republicans are working well together to make sure everyone’s vote gets counted and gets counted in a timely manner. We’re moving forward and working well together,” state Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs told The Post.

Westchester County executive Ken Jenkins also demanded an investigation into the issue, saying he had directed the county officials, including the law department, to monitor the process so “voters can cast their ballots without interference.”

Conspiracy theories were already swirling within hours of the revelation, with many theorizing the ballot issue was an attempt by Democrats to wrangle back the House seat.

New York 17 was one of just three congressional districts in the entire country to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, while also electing a Republican to Congress.

The Westchester portion of the district tends to vote blue, but has pockets of Republican strongholds that make the 2026 race difficult to predict — and a close race for the entire district could mean drama that drags on for weeks, according to experts.

“What I do envision is that if the margin is somewhat narrow as of 9.01 p.m. tonight, you better believe that the losing side, whether it’s Conley or Lawler, is going to ask for an investigation or ask for a recount,” said Jake Dilemani, a Democratic consultant who lives in the district.

“They’re going to want to make sure every single vote that was supposed to be cast was counted. That process, depending on how small that margin is, could take weeks and could wind up in court.”

GOP Strategist Bill O’Reilly predicted that a larger issue with the fiasco is voters’ faith in government.

“The last thing New Yorkers need is less faith in our voting systems, and today’s catastrophe in Westchester does nothing to boost public confidence,” O’Reilly said.

“The bottom line is that some number of voters will walk away without voting today, and that’s totally unacceptable. Expect the crucially important NY-17 race to take forever to count. Remember when New York could actually tally votes?”

Many Westchester voters were unsettled Tuesday by the ballot rejections, with some raising concerns that their ballots were being tampered with.

“It makes me think that someone with big money had something to do with this,” said George Brown, 77, a former city clerk in Mount Vernon.

“I’ve seen issues with polling places, but never the whole county. It didn’t stop me from voting, though. As long as I can vote, I don’t care how I vote. The inconvenience is all part of the game.”

When it came to the faulty machines, Etoya Williams, 48, said: “I don’t trust it.”

“I want my ballot to be in the machine, not in the orange bag. Hopefully it’s counted right, once it goes through,” Williams said.

Additional reporting by Matthew Fischetti