Human Error and Server Failures Delay Wisconsin Primary Results

Technical and administrative failures delayed the reporting of the 2026 Wisconsin primary results across multiple counties. In Milwaukee, Paulina Gutierrez, Executive Director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, reported that a human error occurred when five of nine USB sticks delivered to central count contained audit logs instead of election results. Gutierrez stated, "It's a human error," explaining that someone pressed the wrong button, which left nearly 15,000 ballots initially uncounted.

Officials corrected the Milwaukee error by redownloading data from machines and reuploading them at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Following this correction, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson announced results showing David Crowley leading Francesca Hong by 2,392 votes. This outcome contradicted pre-election polling that had favored Hong. State-wide, David Crowley secured the Democratic nomination for Governor, while Tom Tiffany won the Republican nomination.

Simultaneously, Green County officials faced a separate delay caused by a server failure. While 16 municipalities successfully transferred their data, the reporting program failed to communicate with the server, trapping results in an encrypted file. Staff were forced to manually obtain results from municipal clerks via physical device delivery to the County Clerk's Office. Officials emphasized that the technical failure did not compromise the integrity of the votes cast.