Poll officials work to process misprinted absentee ballots

MILWAUKEE -- One of the big concerns heading into Election Day in Wisconsin Tuesday, April 3rd involved Milwaukee County's misprinted, absentee ballots. There were nearly 6,000 absentee votes to tabulate, and questions regarding how they would be processed efficiently.

More than four-dozen poll officials gathered on the city's northside starting at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, April 3rd to process Milwaukee's absentee ballots. About a week and a half ago, Milwaukee County municipalities received some 450,000 misprinted ballots, many of which could not be properly process by the ballot machines.

City of Milwaukee Election Commissioner Sue Edman says due to time constraints, the city had to send out thousands of misprinted absentee ballots, and Tuesday, poll officials processed the nearly 5,800 that were submitted by absentee voters. "They'll try to process the ballot first (in the machine). If it will not go in, under one of the four orientations, they will reconstruct the ballot," Edman said.

Officials tried to get ballots through the machines starting with the top and bottom, and then with either side facing up. If that didn't work, poll officials copied the original votes onto new ballots, and processed those ballots.