Milwaukee is recounting about 34,000 ballots due to human error

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Workers count ballots at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Tuesday. / Getty Images

This piece originally appeared as part of NPR's live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.

Officials in Milwaukee say they are re-tabulating around 34,000 ballots after a snafu with some of their machines.

Ann Jacobs, the chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, explained in a series of posts on X that the doors of the tabulator machines were not locked and sealed this morning as they should have been.

"Both political parties agree that nothing was wrong with the tabulation so far," she added. "However, in the interest of transparency and so that people can have confidence in the tabulation, the decision was made to re-tabulate the ballots run through so far."

That process will delay Milwaukee's reporting, with Jacobs apologizing for what will be "a very late night" in the city.

But she said it was "absolutely the right decision" on the part of election officials, especially considering they did so before getting any results.

"NOBODY knows how the originally scanned ballots were voted," she said.

MORE: Wisconsin election results

Jacobs also emphasized that there is nothing wrong with the tabulators themselves.

"They are going to, out of an abundance of caution, recount these 30,000 ballots there, but there has been no sign at all that that means the process is fraudulent or rigged or anything like that," election security correspondent Miles Parks said on NPR's special radio coverage.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R.-Wis., told NPR that he plans to visit Milwaukee Central Count to speak to poll workers and observers about the delay.

"A machine back popped open, they had to reset the counters and they're counting over again," he said. "Now they're saying we're not going to get the results until the wee hours of the morning."

Wisconsin is one of a handful of key swing states that could help decide the election. It voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020.

Follow the latest from Milwaukee at WUWM.com.