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Infamous for delays in counting ballots, it looks like Milwaukee’s Election Day tabulation will go long into the night once again amid tabulator and ballot security problems. 

Swing state Wisconsin’s most populous city will have to recount some 31,000 absentee ballots previously counted thanks to an unsealed tabulator, sources at Milwaukee’s Central Count location tell The Federalist. Each ballot must be recounted. 

It’s a mess, according to Republican observers at the scene. 

‘Layers of Issues’

When the day began after about an hour’s delay, observers inspected the sealed tabulator machines, a poll watcher told The Federalist. All was well at that time, the source said. 

“Later one of our observers noticed that the seals (on the machines) had been broken,” the source said. They had effectively been unlocked, presenting a potential integrity breach, the observer said. Sources say about a dozen machines had apparently been compromised. By whom remained unclear as of 5:30 p.m. Milwaukee time, just 2 1/2 hours before Wisconsin’s polls close. 

“We were waiting and waiting to get a count and all of a sudden they made the decision that they were going to zero out all of the wards in every machine and that they were going to re-run all of those ballots for various reasons, the most prominent being the broken seals,” the observer said.  

But not all of the tabulators were up and running before 6 p.m. Milwaukee time, said the source, who sent The Federalist a photo of empty tables at Central Count surrounded by boxes of ballots but few poll workers. 

Questions and concerns about chain of custody, ballot numbers and other election integrity issues abounded as the Democrat city deals with tens of thousands of absentee ballots and many more Election Day ballots. Republican observers say there is a stink of malfeasance at Central Count. 

“There are layers of issues here of stalling tactics. It appears that they are trying to figure out what they need to win,” one Central Count observer told The Federalist.

‘We Don’t Know What’s Going On Back There’

The Milwaukee Election Commission faced similar accusations in the “irregularity”-plagued 2020 election, when the Milwaukee count went deep into the wee hours, delaying Wisconsin’s results in a razor-thin election. As The Federalist has reported, Milwaukee delivered the margin then-Democrat candidate Joe Biden needed to claim victory over President Donald Trump in the Badger State. Claire Woodall-Vogg, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission at the time, worked closely with leftist organizations through a controversial “Zuckbucks” agreement. 

“Damn, Claire, you have a flair for drama, delivering just the margin needed at 3:00 a.m.,” Ryan Chew of the Elections Group, wrote in a congratulatory email to Vogg. “I bet you had those votes counted at midnight, and just wanted to keep the world waiting!”

That email, which state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Milwaukee-area Republican, obtained in her investigation into the 2020 election, raised understandable questions about Milwaukee’s roll in the election. 

Milwaukee Elections officials aren’t doing themselves any favors on the transparency front. A section of Central Count is again blocked off by a black curtain where elections officials keep bringing in ballots, one Central Count observer said. 

“We don’t know what’s going on back there,” the source said. “Even the Democrats agree it’s got a bad appearance.” The city attorney, the observer said, refused requests to have the curtain removed.  

Republicans are frustrated about the latest round of what may generously be described as Election Day incompetence in leftist-led Milwaukee. 

“Throughout the day we have been monitoring slow ballot counting in Milwaukee. Now, our legal team has learned that the counting took place in insecure conditions and the city now has to start over, wildly extending the counting timeline,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chairwoman Lara Trump.  “This is an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration in a key swing state: voters deserve better and we are unambiguously calling on Milwaukee’s officials to do their jobs and count ballots quickly and effectively. Anything less undermines voter confidence.” 

Meanwhile, a poll observer tracking several voting locations in Milwaukee says same-day registration at some of the most Democrat-heavy polling sites in Milwaukee — and the county — are at unbelievable numbers. One observer estimates same-day registration at 80 percent of voters at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education on the north side of Milwaukee. Same-day voting was also reportedly up in deep blue Madison, which turned in unprecedented numbers in 2020 for Biden. 

“It was slow during the day in Milwaukee, a rush this morning. Now lots of new registrations, lots of same-day voters,” the observer told The Federalist. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.