Milwaukee election officials found themselves making an unexpected return trip Tuesday night after a mistake involving USB drives delayed the reporting of roughly 28,000 absentee ballots.
Milwaukee Election Commissioner Paulina Gutierrez said five of the nine USB drives she brought to the Milwaukee County Courthouse contained the wrong information. Instead of ballot results, the drives contained election audit logs.
Gutierrez attributed the problem to “human error.”
“All of this was done in the public sphere,” she said. “It was a matter of the wrong button being pressed.”
According to Gutierrez, there was no malfunction involving the voting machines themselves. The problem occurred when the information intended for delivery to county officials was downloaded onto the drives.
Milwaukee says due to human error, 5 out of 9 USBs were missing election results. Oops! pic.twitter.com/cLFRALff5p
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 12, 2026
That meant election workers had to return to the central location where Milwaukee’s absentee ballots had been processed and obtain the correct files.
“We’re going to reprint and start the process so that we can compare those results,” Gutierrez said.
Once the results were downloaded again, they could be returned to the Milwaukee County Election Commission at the courthouse and incorporated into the count.
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson estimated that the mistake delayed results by approximately one hour.
The incident did not involve a small batch of votes. About 28,000 absentee ballots were involved, making the discovery of incorrect data on more than half of the USB drives a conspicuous problem on primary night even though officials said the underlying votes were unaffected.
City officials emphasized accuracy and transparency in responding to the mistake.
“Elections are a bedrock of democracy. The City of Milwaukee’s highest priority during an election is the accuracy of our vote count,” Nick DeSiato, chief of staff to Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said in a statement.
“The Milwaukee Election Commission has been and will continue to be transparent with its processes,” DeSiato continued.
He also used the incident to renew an argument over Wisconsin’s rules for handling absentee ballots, saying the state Legislature should reconsider allowing election officials to begin processing those ballots earlier.
Milwaukee, again. 5 of 9 USB drives arrived with audit logs, not results. 15,000 ballots in limbo. “Wrong button.”
Same song, apparently infinite verses.
The 👏 processes 👏 of 👏 our 👏 elections 👏 are 👏 broken.
We’ve had hearings, statements, task forces. Everything except…
— True the Vote (@TrueTheVote) August 12, 2026
“This also serves as a timely reminder that our state Legislature needs to revisit the ability to early process absentee votes,” DeSiato said.
“There are also many layers to election security and accountability to ensure that the vote count is accurate,” he added.
Those safeguards become particularly important when an ordinary procedural mistake happens in the middle of reporting election results.
Election officials characterized Tuesday’s problem as exactly that: an employee selected the wrong data, put it onto five USB drives and discovered the error during the handoff process. Officials then returned for the correct results and compared the information before proceeding.
There has been no indication in the provided reports that ballots were lost, altered or incorrectly tabulated because of the mistake.
Still, the incident illustrates why mundane details in election administration can become consequential on election night. A wrong selection on a computer can mean thousands of results do not arrive when expected, workers have to retrace their steps and the public waits longer to learn the outcome.
That wait mattered in Wisconsin’s closely watched Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley ultimately narrowly defeated progressive candidate Francesca Hong, according to CNN.
With a close contest unfolding, a delay involving approximately 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee was inevitably going to attract attention.
WAIT….WHAT 🚨
Just in case you’re wondering… this specific glitch has never happened in Milwaukee County
Hong had a slight lead on Crowley.. (THEN)
Officials discovered ” HUMAN ERROR ” five of the (9) memory sticks contained audit logs, instead of election results… pic.twitter.com/eJn4KThIc0
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) August 12, 2026
Election officials’ explanation was considerably less dramatic than the circumstances might initially have suggested.
Five drives had the wrong files. The machines were not blamed. Workers went back to retrieve the proper results, and officials said the process remained public.
In the end, what interrupted Milwaukee’s primary reporting wasn’t an elaborate technical breakdown.
According to the city’s top election official, somebody pressed the wrong button.
