Waukesha County election canvass underway ahead of Dec. 15 vote

WAUKESHA, Wis. - Voters in Waukesha County will soon head back to the polls to cast another ballot. Last week’s results are now being certified. The canvassing board is expected to continue working through Wednesday. The results of last week’s election will not be made official until their work is done.

Waukesha County canvass

What To Know:

Every voter machine used in the county creates a tape, or receipt, when all the votes are cast. County Clerk Georgia Maxwell and a representative from both the Democrats and Republicans go through and add up every machine’s totals. They are making sure the numbers match the number of ballots. They are also reviewing handwritten poll books to check to see if there were any technical issues with any ballots. Maxwell compared it to balancing a checkbook down to the penny – she said ‘each and every’ vote is accounted for. The process is livestreamed so municipal clerks and, more importantly, members of the public can watch the process live.

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"On election night," Maxwell said, "the results that we report on our website and – this is true throughout the state of Wisconsin – they are technically the unofficial results. We got through this process where we are reconciling – for lack of a better word – every tape and every ballot for every machine across the entire county."

Special election Dec. 15

What's next:

Turnout last week was 81%. Maxwell said that is nearly identical to the last midterm election. In Waukesha County, voters will still have one more election this calendar year: Dec. 15 will be a special election for county executive because of the death of Paul Farrow this past July.

"The statute is very clear on when a special election has to be called. For that special election as it relates to the county executive – we have between a 62 and 77 day period of time for the special," said Maxwell.

Maxwell said the county was required to pause during that time period because of the November 3rd general election, which is why the county executive race was not on last week’s ballot. "A lot of our voters may or may not know – they might think, you know, thank goodness the ads have stopped, and we get our lives back, and we’re done with this election but let’s not forget here in Waukesha County, we have a very important election on December 15th," said Maxwell.

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Because it is the only one race – many municipalities only have one polling place open. All voters in the city of Waukesha, for example, will vote at City Hall. Visit myvote.wi.gov to check your polling place.

Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Bret Lemoine and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.

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