Milwaukee ballot issue; The city says 30,000 should be recounted

The machines are not connected to the internet and are usually reset at the beginning of the day.

Paulina Gutiérrez speaks about the ballot tabulation issue at the Milwaukee Central Count on Tuesday, November 5th.

FOX6 News heard from Claire Woodall, the commission's former executive director, on Monday. She provided information about the central counting process, including the following:

Start of the day

On election day and before central counting begins, the following procedure will be completed:

• Tabulation machines are turned on by a member of the Board of Absentee Canvassers (BAC) and confirms that the number of processed ballots in the system is 0.
• The door where the power switch is located is locked and sealed. All other openings are already closed.
• The zero report is printed.
• The Chief Inspector and another member of the BAC will sign the printed zero report and record the seal numbers and initials on the EL-104.
• The Zero report and the EL-104 are together in the black folder located on each device.

Preprocessing

Before processing ballotsThe two assigned tabulation workers will perform the following procedure:

• Tabs confirm that the ballot processed in the system has a value of 0.
• Tabulators check and sign the zero report to confirm that the system is at 0.
• Tabs confirm that all seals are intactand confirm that the seal numbers match those of EL-104. They then sign the EL-104 on the signature lines.
• The signed Zero Report and EL-104 are placed back in the black folder.

8:53am update

Gutiérrez answered questions from the media and provided updates on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5th.

“We’re seeing a lot of voter registration. Voter registrations are long,” Gutiérrez said.

From Tuesday, 8:53 a.m., The City of Milwaukee Election Commission says it has received 106,750 of the 113,311 mail-in ballots issued. Compared to the 169,000 mail-in ballots received in 2020, that is a decrease of 36 percent.

“No worries. Things are going pretty well at the polling stations. What we are seeing are long lines and a lot of activity, so we ask our voters to be patient. “I have a hotline with 15 employees to answer all questions and concerns coming to these polling stations,” Gutiérrez said.

Election Day: Tuesday, November 5th

Polls in Wisconsin are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters who are already registered should bring photo ID.

If you are not yet registered to vote, you can do so at the ballot box. All voters must provide proof of residency. This includes a valid Wisconsin state driver's license or ID card. There are several other acceptable forms of identification accepted at the polls.

Track your ballot

MyVote Wisconsin also makes it convenient for voters to track their ballot. You can see whether a ballot request has been received or processed, whether your ballot has been mailed, and whether there has been a problem with a ballot.