In her first televised interview since a “human error” delayed reporting of Milwaukee’s absentee results in the August election, the leader of the Milwaukee Election Commission defended the central count process and agreed to participate in any investigations launched by local or state lawmakers.
On WISN-TV’s Sunday politics talk show “Upfront,” Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez stressed the accuracy of the results were not threatened at any point. The error only affected what time the results were reported, she said.
“I can’t get into someone’s head, but what I know is that we’re learning from this mistake and making enhancements so that it doesn’t happen again,” Gutiérrez told “Upfront” Aug. 23.
After Milwaukee transported its absentee ballot results on flash drives to the Milwaukee County Election Commission stationed at the county courthouse Aug. 11, officials revealed that a “human error” led to five of nine flash drives downloading audit logs instead of the actual vote tallies. The error delayed results for several hours.
Gutiérrez said her commission will put visual screenshots on instruction sheets to aid the bipartisan team, made up of full-time staff, that downloads results. The commission will also demonstrate the process during public testing and adopt a “point-and-call verification” to verbalize and check each step, she said.
Gutiérrez said the team was experienced, had written instructions and had done the process before. She did not reveal any new information about who made the mistake and did not directly say if there would be any repercussions.
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with me as the executive director, and so my job is to make sure that people are ready,” she said. “I’m not going to discuss personnel matters, but what matters is that we get better, and we learn from this issue.”
The city is not seeking disciplinary action against the employee who made the mistake, Nick DeSiato, chief of staff for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, previously told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Gutiérrez said she welcomes any investigation into the election night error, explaining that voters’ “confidence is important to us.” Gutiérrez said she expects to testify in front of the Milwaukee Common Council in September. The state Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections is also seeking a response from the election commission.
“I recognize your office has stated there is no evidence the results were compromised, and I take that seriously,” said Republican Rep. Dave Maxey, who chairs the state committee. “But trust in our elections is not built on the absence of fraud alone. It is built on competence, consistency, and transparency, and Milwaukee’s central count operation has now failed that test three times.”
In November 2024, the City of Milwaukee had to reprocess about 31,000 absentee ballots after the tabulator doors had not been closed. In April 2025, nine polling sites temporarily ran out of ballots on Election Day.
Gutiérrez says getting rid of central count would compromise security
Gutiérrez, on “Upfront,” defended the central count process and said eliminating it would create security concerns.
Milwaukee and about 40 other municipalities in Wisconsin use one central count location to process and canvass absentee ballots, rather than at individual polling places.
Gutiérrez said getting rid of central count would require a “significant amount of resources and planning.” Without a central location, tens of thousands of uncounted absentee ballots would be transported throughout the city for 15 hours, she said.
“In my opinion, that is not a secure method for managing absentee ballot counting,” Gutiérrez said.
The Milwaukee Police Department was also stationed outside central count, located at 1901 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, so no unauthorized individuals could come to the location, she added.
Republican state Rep. Scott Krug, the vice chair of the state elections committee, told “Upfront” there could be renewed discussions about allowing central count when the state Legislature reconvenes in January. Krug has led efforts to allow clerks to process absentee ballots a day earlier with the goal of preventing election night delays.
“If you don’t have the right people, the right personnel, you could screw up on Monday, you could screw up on Tuesday, sometimes they’re screwing up on Wednesday,” he said. “A new process isn’t necessarily going to work until we have the training down pat.”
Hope Karnopp can be reached at HKarnopp@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee elections leader defends central count after results delay
Reporting by Hope Karnopp, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Hope Karnopp, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
