An estimated 31,000 ballots will reportedly need to be recounted, according to city officials.
City spokesperson Jeff Fleming told Fox 6 that while the tabulators were sealed, the doors were not fully closed properly. All 13 tabulators are affected by the issue.
The recount will take hours, officials said.
Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “I know for a fact that these machines are highly secure, there was no tampering. We were able to confirm that.”
RNC co-chair Lara Trump said in a statement on X, “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.”
“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,” the statement concluded.
On Monday, the RNC sued the Milwaukee Elections Commission to “prevent the city from restricting poll watcher access,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said. “As a result of our lawsuit, we just got word that Milwaukee has affirmed that poll watchers will have full access to observe the voting process.”
The lawsuit accused the Milwaukee Election Commission of “arbitrarily limiting” poll watchers.
“The issue is that when access is arbitrarily restricted, a situation is manufactured where access is meted out largely according to the whims of the chief inspector,” the lawsuit said, adding, “The statutory criteria are mandatory when considering the establishment of observer areas at polling locations, and it is impermissible to establish an arbitrary number of observers that may be present.”
