Election Security Updates: Milwaukee Will Rerun 30,000 Absentee Ballots, Delaying Vote Counting

Milwaukee will have to count an estimated 30,000 absentee ballots after a human error at the city’s central ballot processing facility, likely delaying the city’s final results by several hours.

According to Jeff Fleming of the Milwaukee mayor’s office, the door to several tabulators was not properly sealed.

“The people operating the cars along both walls — 13 cars — are getting zeroed out,” Fleming said. “They will re-run all the ballots they previously used once they are cleared.”

Milwaukee received a total of 106,000 absentee ballots, which are being processed at the city’s Baird Convention Center. Under Wisconsin law, the city cannot report absentee ballot results until every ballot has been counted.

“We’re guessing, you know, one hour, two hours, three hours, four. We just don’t know at this stage,” Fleming said of the delay.

Fleming said the problem was “human error,” which he blamed on “election officials.”

“We want to make sure that everyone understands that our goal here in this room is to be absolutely accurate, beyond any doubt, and to do that we’re going to recalculate the balance,” Fleming said.

The Milwaukee Board of Elections said the vote-counting doors were not “fully in place,” forcing the process to be restarted.

“The City of Milwaukee has no doubt about the integrity of the election,” the commission said in a statement. “However, to remove any doubts and achieve full transparency, the MEC has decided to start the tabulation process anew for all ballots. in the Central County.”

– Peter Charalambous of ABC News