Sen. Ron Johnson questions Milwaukee's recount of 30,000 mail-in ballots

Republican Senator Ron Johnson expressed concerns about the 31,000 mail-in ballots. The city of Milwaukee said it began the recount Tuesday afternoon after election officials were alerted that the doors covering the on/off switches on some of the machines used to count those votes had not been properly closed.

The city's top elections official said earlier in the evening that the machines had not been tampered with and that the decision to recount the ballots was made out of “an abundance of caution” and in consultation with Democrats and Republicans.

During a visit downtown with Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming, Johnson called the vote-counting process in the state's heavily Democratic city “extremely disorganized.”

During the tour, Johnson interviewed Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez.

Schimming said they wanted to trust the process but said it was “fair” to ask questions when an issue arose with so many ballots.

City officials said they would rerun about 31,000 mail-in ballots “out of an abundance of caution,” and a senior state election official said, “Both political parties agree there has been nothing wrong with the tabulation so far.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, during a visit after Republicans left, dismissed senators' questions about whether the city was unprepared for the high-profile election.

And he didn't think the error would be a reproach to those seeking to undermine the results of the more than 100,000 mail-in ballots returned to the city's election commission.

“This was a problem that was recognized, a problem that was addressed and a problem that we took seriously,” the mayor said. “We have been working to resolve the issue and ensure all ballots were counted and counted correctly.”

In the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump and other Republicans focused on Milwaukee's mail-in ballots as he made baseless claims of voter fraud to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in Wisconsin.

Trump's 2020 loss in the state was confirmed by recounts he paid for, court rulings, a nonpartisan state audit and a study by a prominent conservative group.

But the senator said he wants officials to preserve video of the process and the counting of the 30,000 ballots in question both before and after the rerun.

The Oshkosh Republican said the party wants to know the results of the initial tally of ballots so it can compare them with the rerun.

“If we don't have that, I'll be very suspicious,” he told reporters shortly after 8 p.m. local time.

“We need to know what these numbers are, not just the number of ballots, but how many votes for Kamala Harris and how many votes for Donald Trump,” the Republican senator said.

Schimming, who took over the central count alongside Johnson, told the Journal Sentinel that he wanted to talk to election observers, “and then we will decide how to proceed.”

“We are not here because there is no problem,” said Schimming. “There was something open on the back of the tabs. You had a job.”

“It's not that it's unlawful to ask tabulators questions about open tabs in a state where there are no voting machines,” Schimming said.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Lawrence Andrea can be reached at [email protected].

Sen. Ron Johnson questions Milwaukee's recount of 30,000 mail-in ballots

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