Officials Order Retabulation of 30,000 Absentee Ballots in Milwaukee

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The re-tabulation could delay the city’s election results by several hours.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will re-tabulate roughly 30,000 absentee ballots after finding that their tabulation machines were not properly closed, city officials told reporters hours before the polls were set to close on Nov. 5.

City spokesperson Jeff Fleming said that officials do not believe that the voting equipment was “tampered with in any way.” Nonetheless, they will err on the side of caution and start the process again.

“There have been extensive discussions with election officials here in consultation with people in Madison and our attorneys, and they said, let’s make sure there’s absolutely no question, and so that part of the process will be redone,” Fleming said.

He said that officials will reset the voting equipment to zero and rerun the ballots through the machines. The process could delay the city’s election results by several hours.

That’s unwelcome news for many who are watching the results closely as the battleground state is set to play a deciding role in determining the next U.S. president.

Fleming noted that the processing of the absentee ballots and their envelopes—the most time-consuming aspect of the process—will not be re-done in this case.

Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said she found the news that counting had occurred in “unsecured conditions” to be unacceptable.

“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,” Trump said in a statement.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.