Overview
- Election staff at Milwaukee’s Central Count accidentally exported audit logs instead of vote totals from five of nine tabulators, which delayed the absentee upload on Tuesday night while officials returned to the operations center to retrieve correct files.
- The late-night correction produced a finalized absentee count early Wednesday that gave Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley a narrow victory over Francesca Hong by roughly four thousand votes.
- City and county officials said the paper ballots, encrypted result files and audit trails allowed workers to detect and fix the error and that there is no evidence ballots were lost or altered.
- The error renewed partisan accusations and calls for investigations, and the Milwaukee Common Council has scheduled hearings while the Milwaukee Election Commission and county offices conduct internal post-election reviews.
- The incident adds to a string of Milwaukee election administration problems since 2024 and could push lawmakers to expand pre-processing of absentee ballots, increase staff training, or tighten oversight before the November election.