Gubernatorial Primary Results Reveal Divisions in Wisconsin’s Democratic Party

The recent Midwest primary outcomes have laid bare significant rifts within the Democratic Party in Wisconsin and Minnesota. With anchors Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino at the helm, viewers were treated to insights on some tightly contested races, notably David Crowley’s slender win in Wisconsin, edging out his opponent by just over 3,000 votes. Political commentary from former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker highlighted how established candidates managed to outpace progressive challengers.

In a related development, the announcement of Milwaukee’s election results from Tuesday’s primary was postponed due to “human error.” It appears that five out of nine USB flash drives used to download the election results encountered issues, leading critics to brand this as “total incompetence.”

This mishap effectively postponed the results of the closely monitored Democratic gubernatorial primary race between Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Francesca Hong. Concerns about election management have intensified in Democratic-led areas, where recent reporting errors have attracted criticism and inquiries from Republican legislators.

“We’re all human, and mistakes happen,” acknowledged Paulina Gutierrez, the executive director of the Milwaukee Board of Elections, during a late-night press conference.

The failure delayed the county’s results by an hour, as Gutierrez and Milwaukee Elections Commission officials had to return to Central County under police escort to gather the remaining voting information.

“What we need to do is go back to our operations center and download the results from those machines again to ensure it’s not just an audit log,” Gutierrez explained. She mentioned plans to compare results to ensure accuracy.

The Milwaukee Board of Elections later clarified in a statement that what had been downloaded was an audit log documenting activity on the tabulation machines, rather than the actual election results.

“This issue delayed the reporting but didn’t impact the final results,” the statement assured, adding that no ballots were lost or altered and that recounts were unnecessary. Gutierrez confirmed that the voting machines functioned properly, admitting that an incorrect button was pressed during the download process.

In a subsequent interview, she highlighted that typically, downloading results should take about ten minutes, but some devices can complete this in as little as three minutes.

Former Milwaukee elections official Claire Woodall pointed out that this was not the first time such “human error” had occurred. She questioned whether proper training had been provided for those handling the equipment.

The incident resulted in 15,000 votes remaining uncounted at that point, causing significant frustration during live coverage, where NBC News’ Steve Kornacki expressed dismay over Milwaukee’s error.

After the proper downloading of data was completed shortly after 1 a.m., Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson spoke to the press, underscoring the need for transparency in the electoral process.

“What’s important is we maintain transparency and ensure our results are safe,” Christenson asserted. He highlighted the election official’s efforts to clarify and rectify the situation.

However, critics were quick to voice their concerns. Republican state Representative Scott Klug commented on the “complete incompetence” of the process, indicating that preemptive checks could have mitigated the error.

This Milwaukee error follows issues in other Democratic-leaning states, where similar hiccups have arisen. In New Jersey, a software error improperly registered around 6,600 individuals as voters, while in Oregon, nearly 2,000 were registered without adequate proof of eligibility.

As for Milwaukee’s past mistakes, it’s worth noting that during the 2020 election, a similar mishap with missing flash drives delayed results from about 169,000 absentee ballots.

Emily Miklas, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Elections Commission, reassured the public that while human errors do occur, the integrity of elections in Wisconsin is firmly safeguarded through several layers of oversight.

The race between Crowley and Hong was officially concluded at 2:34 a.m. Wednesday, with Crowley emerging victorious by a narrow margin of 0.5%.