On Election Day 2024, reports emerged that tens of thousands of absentee ballots in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would be recounted:
Those reports coincided with claims of "unsealed" tabulation machines in use in Milwaukee:
While human error, not machine error, was the cause of this issue, the Milwaukee Election Commission confirmed the state would recount absentee ballots that had been run at its Central Count center. The move was being made, WTMJ reported, in an "overabundance of caution."
As the commission wrote in a public statement, the issue was, indeed, over the lack of a seal on tabulation machines — an oversight attributed to "senior election officials":
This afternoon, Milwaukee Election Commission (MEC) leadership was alerted to an issue with the tabulator doors being fully in place. Each machine has a door that should have been locked and sealed. It appears some doors were not fully secured by senior election officials.
The City of Milwaukee has no doubt regarding the integrity of the election. However, in order to eliminate any doubt to be fully transparent, the MEC has decided to start the tabulation process over for all ballots at Central Count.
As a result, the commission said, vote counts of these absentee ballots would be delayed. The decision to recount, Wisconsin officials said, was made in consultation with both Republican and Democratic officials and would affect "approximately 31,000 ballots."