MILWAUKEE — The City of Milwaukee’s votes for the 2024 election were officially certified this Monday following Friday morning’s hazmat scare.
The Milwaukee Election Commission publicly tallied and certified the city’s votes with a small audience of election observers.
Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez said, “It’s always done in teams — bipartisan, democrat and republican — so people should rest assured that this election has its transparency, its integrity and security.”
Part of the certification process means looking at any standing ballot challenges, as well as opening and counting any cured provisional ballots.
“If you forgot your photo ID you can come into the election commission to cure your ID and then we count your ballot,” she said, “Those ballots are held securely here until someone reveals their ID.”
Provisional ballots are available during every election, and Wisconsin residents have until 4:00 pm the Friday following an election to provide a photo ID so their vote can be counted. Not everyone who casts a provisional ballot provides their ID.
Gutierrez said, “This election we had about 138 provisional ballots, and 18 people came in to cure their ballot — which means this morning we opened those ballots and counted them and added it to the final tally.”
She said in this year’s federal election that few uncounted votes isn’t likely to swing an election one way or the other, but can have a major impact in local elections where turnout is much lower.
The certified results are sent to Milwaukee County for re-certification next week, then to the state.
