The Milwaukee Election Commission told the Wisconsin Elections Commission in a letter Friday that it will tighten central-count procedures before the Nov. 3 general election, after a download error on primary night delayed unofficial results from the state’s largest city.
The letter comes as state regulators prepare to vote Monday on whether to formally demand answers from Milwaukee officials about the Aug. 11 partisan primary. In that election, workers at the city’s central count site copied audit logs onto five of nine USB drives instead of the unofficial vote totals from absentee tabulators. Officials later returned to the site to retrieve the correct files, pushing public reporting of Milwaukee’s results into the early morning hours of Aug. 12.
Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez has said the episode was “human error” and that it did not change the accuracy of the tallies. “It had an impact on when those results were posted,” she said last weekend.
Friday’s letter outlines changes the city says it will put in place before November. Those include updated written instructions with on-screen images of each download step, a “point-and-call” check in which staff verbalize each action before it is completed, additional briefings for the teams that export results, and a public demonstration of the download process during pre-election equipment testing.
The commission also said it will give observers a page-by-page checklist so they can follow the process in real time.
A draft letter already posted by the Wisconsin Elections Commission notes that “mistakes and resulting delays can undermine the public’s confidence in the election process.” The draft also asks Milwaukee to release tabulator audit logs from Aug. 11 so the public can see what occurred between the first, incorrect download and the later results report. WEC commissioners are scheduled to consider that request at their meeting on Tuesday.
State lawmakers have separately pressed Milwaukee for a fuller accounting. Assembly elections committee Chairman Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, wrote Gutierrez on Aug. 21 calling the delay “a travesty” and giving her 30 days to answer detailed questions. Maxey cited earlier problems at Milwaukee’s central count operation in 2020 and 2024 and said a fourth failure “will not be treated as an accident.” He also asked the city commission to brief his committee.
Gutierrez has said her written replies to Maxey and to the state elections commission will match what she has already told reporters: the wrong function was selected on the machines, staff had written procedures and prior training, and the city is adding more safeguards. Mayor Cavalier Johnson has said no one will be fired and described the episode as a training issue.
