Milwaukee central count officials acknowledge primary results reporting mistake

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(The Center Square) – The Milwaukee Election Commission acknowledged that a team led by its deputy director mistakenly selected and downloaded an audit log instead of election results on five of nine tabulators at its central count facility on the state’s primary election night, leading to a delay in reporting unofficial results.

The commission said that it would make public records related to the Aug. 11 primary available online by Sept. 4, according to a letter send to the Wisconsin Elections Commission obtained by CBS Milwaukee Anchor A.J. Bayatpour.

The letter acknowledge that written procedures to download the results were available at the time and “MEC takes responsibility for the error” but that the error “did not affect the security and accuracy of the underlying election results.”

The response came as the WEC was planning to vote on a letter it would send to the Milwaukee commission at its Monday meeting.

“To build confidence in Milwaukee’s process ahead of the November General Election, MEC should answer these questions and provide information to the public as soon as practicable,” the draft letter states. “Fair or unfair, the eyes of the nation are often on Milwaukee and providing transparency into the system, especially when a mistake occurs, is a critical service to the voters of our state.”

The Milwaukee Election Commission told Dairyland Sentinel that it would take “several weeks to months” to produce records related to the mistake. Now, it says, those documents will be posted online in the next week.