New Berlin election results delayed due to 'machine issue'

NEW BERLIN -- The Waukesha County clerk reported "a machine issue" that led to delayed election results for the City of New Berlin -- Wards 4, 5, 6 and 7.

An alert on the Waukesha County clerk's website said all other unofficial results for Waukesha County were reported.

The New Berlin city clerk told FOX6 News around 8:30 p.m., they received a call about "a memory stick problem" that occurred at the District 2 (Wards 4-7) voting headquarters at the Community Center near Cleveland and Moorland. The Waukesha County clerk was notified and they were in the process of getting another memory stick and vote tallying machines to the New Berlin City Clerk's Office to count the votes.

“I can tell you that at the end of the night, our memory stick malfunctioned for District 2, Wards 4 through 7. At that time, we contacted the county and ES&S, which is our election system software company immediately. After that, we were given directive to bring the sticks back here to City Hall, and at that time, the county met us out here with new sticks.  Right now, as you see behind me, we’re working hard to get all the ballots put in the machine and all the votes counted. At this time, that’s our number one priority," said Georgia Stanford, New Berlin city clerk late Tuesday night.

Officials with the Waukesha County Clerk's Office and New Berlin City Clerk's Office re-fed all of the District 2 ballots into the new tallying machines with the new memory sticks, and they were successfully transmitted to the Waukesha County Clerk's Office.

In a statement Wednesday, Stanford said: "The integrity of all elections has always been and will continue to be of the upmost importance to the City of New Berlin."

Waukesha County Clerk Kathleen Novack said this in a statement Wednesday: "This was a challenging effort but everyone worked as a unit.  The ultimate result was a successful election that reflected the total commitment of all Waukesha County election officials in ensuring the integrity of all elections."

The race between Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democrat Tony Evers was too close to call as of midnight with 94 percent of precincts reporting. The lead flipped between the two throughout the night, sometimes as narrowly as a couple hundred votes.

The Associated Press called the race for Evers around 1:30 a.m.

The race for attorney general also remained too close to call early Wednesday.

CLICK HERE for election results.