Milwaukee Election Commission: 269 absentee ballots received Wednesday

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Election Commission says 269 voters who tried submitting their ballots by mail won't have their ballots counted.

But it's not because they did anything wrong, it looks to be on the US Postal Service.

269 ballots delivered after election day

What we know:

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez says the postal service delivered those ballots Wednesday morning, despite repeated efforts from her office asking if USPS had any outstanding ballots.

State law says election officials can only count the ballots that are in their possession by the time polls close, which is 8 p.m.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android

So even though most of the ballots were postmarked April 6th, the day before election day, they don't count.

Gutierrez says USPS delivered 20 absentee ballots on election day, and she called that number "unusually low."

The commission recommends absentee voters get their ballots in the mail around a week or two before election day.

Still, she made clear that the voters aren't at fault here.

What they're saying:

"What I do want to make clear is, as the Executive Director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, our vision is that every eligible vote counts. And the fact that we have voters here who followed the rules and did everything that they were supposed to do, their ballot, their vote did not count. And that is deeply unsettling," said MEC Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez.

Gutierrez says she's been in touch with USPS and says it's investigating what went wrong.

FOX6 reached out to USPS for a comment but did not immediately hear back.