Wisconsin election: Milwaukee officials outline fixes for next vote

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee’s election director detailed the issues that happened during last month’s partisan primary, which saw delays in the reporting of counted absentee ballots, and the plans in place to avoid the problems moving forward.

Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez said on election night, some workers at the city’s central count location inadvertently downloaded the wrong files, and not election results, from some of the ballot counting machines.

Gutierrez told the common council’s judiciary and legislation committee, while a human error, a mistake, and did not impact the election results, steps are in place to prevent the issue from happening again.

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"(It’s a) mistake we take seriously," Gutierrez said Monday. "We understand the frustration and disappointment. I am also frustrated and disappointed."

The problem was only found when the results were hand-delivered to the county clerk’s office, and some of the secure flash drives contained audit logs for some of the tabulators. Gutierrez and other election commission staff then had to go back to the central count location and complete the process again.

"There cannot be human error, because this process is too important. It’s not hyperbole to say the future of Wisconsin government depends on this process," said Alderman Bob Bauman. "Because Milwaukee’s absentee ballot count could very well be decisive, could very well swing the balance, very easily, like it has in the past, given the close nature of elections in the state of Wisconsin."

Moving forward, Gutierrez said central count workers involved in the downloading of election results will have more detailed instructions, a process where workers audibly say out loud what steps they are taking, as well as briefings with those teams on election day.

Gutierrez, and common council members, noted that state law prevents poll workers from starting absentee ballot processing prior to election day, unlike most other states, which has lead to late nights waiting for Milwaukee’s election results to come in.

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