Milwaukee Election Results Delayed by Download Error

Milwaukee Election Commissioner Paulina Gutierrez announces USB download error in primary election Aug. 12. Photo taken by Jeramey Jannene.

The City of Milwaukee’s election results were delayed Tuesday night after a data download error by city election officials.

The delay, which added more than an hour to the reporting timeline, delayed determining the winner of the Democratic primary and a handful of down ballot races.

When Milwaukee Election Commissioner Paulina Gutierrez arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to drop off almost 28,000 absentee ballots from the Milwaukee voters, election officials discovered that five of nine USB drives had the wrong data downloaded to them. The drives had election audit logs, not the results from approximately 15,000 absentee ballots, Gutierrez explained during a news conference at the courthouse.

The mistake was “human error,” Gutierrez said.

After the press conference, Gutierrez and members of the city’s bipartisan election commission returned to their van and Milwaukee Police Department escort and headed back to the city’s central count facility, 1901 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

The commission then downloaded the results properly from five of the high-speed tabulators and again returned to the courthouse after matching totals to previously printed logs of results. Paper ballots exist for each vote and did not need to be reprocessed.

“All of this was done in the public sphere. It was a matter of the wrong button being pressed,” said Gutierriez of downloading the audit logs.

Under state law, municipalities with central count facilities are not allowed to begin counting absentee ballots until polls open on Election Day. During elections with large turnout, the City of Milwaukee is frequently still counting absentee ballots late into the night because of the volume of ballots the city receives and because new ballots can be received up until polls close. The city has repeatedly lobbied for a change in state law that would allow officials to begin counting ballots ahead of Election Day, reducing the time it takes to tabulate election results on election night.

“So for people who have those claims of malfeasance or anything like that, they should know that there is a fix… They shouldn’t look here. They should look west to the Capitol, because that’s where the holdup is,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in July during a tour of the city’s central count facility with U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

With results in the nail-biter election delayed, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore took the stage at Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s campaign watch party to reassure supporters. She told the crowd that thousands of absentee ballots were returned after Crowley reentered the race with Gov. Tony Evers‘ endorsement.

Crowley had a narrow lead over state Rep. Francesca Hong when the city’s absentee results were delayed. The race was likely going to hinge on the results in the city election commission’s USB drives.

“It looks very good,” Moore said. “But we have to wait.”

Jeramey Jannene contributed to this report