Wisconsin Elections Commission reviews Milwaukee primary reporting delay

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is reviewing the response from Milwaukee officials regarding a delay in reporting primary election results. The delay, which lasted approximately one hour, was caused by human error when staff mistakenly downloaded audit logs from five of the city’s nine tabulators instead of the actual election results files.

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez issued a six-page letter detailing the incident and outlining corrective measures. These include revising written download procedures to include visuals, holding staff briefings before the download process, and implementing a verbal verification system. The city has pledged to release audit logs and precinct vote tallies on a public webpage by Friday.

During commission discussions, Republican Vice Chair Bob Spindell requested the release of cast vote records to ensure no ballots were cast during the period when officials were resolving the error. Commissioner Anne Jacobs noted that the information would be included in the forthcoming audit files. The commission ultimately directed staff to draft a letter acknowledging Milwaukee’s response and expressing interest in reviewing the additional records.