Milwaukee Election Results Expected Around 4 a.m.

Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg address the media on November 3rd. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Almost all of Milwaukee’s in-person votes have been reported, but the majority of votes still remain outstanding.

Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Claire Woodall-Vogg expect a central count operation, responsible for processing over 169,000 absentee ballots, to conclude its work at approximately 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. As of 8:00 p.m., it had processed 103,000 ballots.

“The 169,000 ballots will be reported at once,” said Woodall-Vogg during an 8:00 p.m. press conference. While each of the 173 polling sites transmits its results via modem to the Milwaukee County Clerk, the central count facility will generate a series of encrypted USB drives that will be driven via police escort from the office building at 501 W. Michigan St. to the Milwaukee County Courthouse a few blocks north.

Barrett and Woodall-Vogg praised the approximately 4,000 poll workers that staffed Tuesday’s election. “They are not doing this for the money,” said Woodall-Vogg, noting that the pay is $230 for a 14-to-18 hour shift.

A crew of approximately 100 workers will finish the ballot processing work, down from the 400 people that formed each of the three shifts at the central count facility. Many of the workers are city employees that have been at the facility since 6:30 a.m. Up to 45 election observers are allowed in at a time, including 15 each from the two major parties. A number of media members are also camped out at the downtown office building.

“We have not had any valid challenges presented,” said Woodall-Vogg of the process by which observers can challenge the validity of a ballot.

Want to know if the city is getting close to finishing counting? Watch the live video stream. The fewer people on camera the more likely the work is winding down.

One important thing to watch: many reports will show “100% reporting,” a calculation that reflects wards reporting ballots cast, and not that absentee ballots have been received. A Milwaukee County Election Commission webpage lists the status of each municipality’s absentee ballots.

For more information on the central count process, see our coverage from earlier Tuesday. For information on how in-person balloting was going, see our afternoon coverage.