Wisconsin election: "Human error" delays Milwaukee count
Wisconsin election: "Human error" delays Milwaukee count
Election officials said a "human error" caused a delay in processing Milwaukee's votes on Aug. 11.
MILWAUKEE - Election night turned into election morning, as the vote count in Milwaukee was delayed until after 1 a.m. Officials blamed human error.
Vote count delayed
Dig deeper:
Results in Milwaukee County are counted at the county courthouse, where election officials did not finish tallying up the results until Wednesday morning. It all comes down to somebody pushing the wrong button, according to Milwaukee Election Commission Director Paulina Gutierrez.
Around midnight, election officials announced five of nine memory sticks delivered to the Milwaukee County Courthouse did not actually have election results on them. Instead, they had audit logs downloaded to them. Gutierrez said it was not the machines that caused the issues, but the memory sticks used to download the results. Someone pushed the wrong button.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android
Officials said they had to go back to Milwaukee's central count location to re-download the results from five machines before returning to the courthouse, the county's central count location, to finish tallying up the results.
Ballots download complete after "human error" at Central Count
Officials confirmed the Milwaukee County ballot download is complete after "human error" happened at Central Count.
Results for Milwaukee
By the numbers:
Just after 1 a.m., Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson announced the results for Milwaukee.
Crowley finished with 65,131 votes, which is 43.04%, and Francesca Hong finished with 62,739 votes, or 41.46%, in Milwaukee.
What they're saying:
"At the end of the day, we will start the canvass tomorrow or the next day, which essentially is an audit. And we also do two extra voluntary audits. So there are plenty of checks and balances in the system to alleviate any of those concerns," Christenson said.
As a result of these issues, officials had to recount roughly 30,000 ballots. Milwaukee County encounters issues with late absentee ballot counts each election because state law prohibits processing absentee votes until polls open on Election Day. Because of the volume, and the fact that they can come in until polls close, the process takes a while.
Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Stephanie Quirk and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
Featured
LIVE RESULTS: 2026 Wisconsin primary election, August races
The 2026 Wisconsin August primary election results will start coming in after polls close. Check the races and the most recent vote totals below.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from Milwaukee Election Commission Director Paulina Gutierrez and Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson.