What to know about the rerunning of more than 30,000 absentee ballots in Milwaukee

After discovering a human error with its vote tabulation machines, Milwaukee is recounting more than 30,000 absentee ballots that had already been processed, city officials announced Tuesday evening.

In a state that already waits until Election Day to count absentee ballots, the recount could further delay statewide election results in Wisconsin.

Here's what we know about the rerunning of ballots in Milwaukee.

How many ballots are being recounted?

The city is rerunning about 31,000 absentee ballots through its tabulators at its downtown Central Count location, city spokesman Jeff Fleming said Tuesday.

In a post on X, Wisconsin Elections Commission Chairwoman Ann Jacobs put the number closer to 34,000 ballots.

"It will be a very late night here in beautiful Milwaukee," she added.

What was the error with the tabulation machines?

The doors on the tabulation machines had not been properly sealed the first time the ballots were counted, according to Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Election Commission.

In a statement, the Election Commission said "senior election officials" did not fully secure the doors. Fleming also attributed the incident to "human error."

"It's just out of an abundance of caution," he said. "We have no reason to believe that there was any compromise to any of the machines."

Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez said both Democratic and Republican party officials agreed to move ahead to the recount "to ensure the American public that this election is going to be run safe, secure and transparent."

How much will the rerunning delay election results in Milwaukee?

Fleming said the recount could delay final election results in Milwaukee by one to three hours.

Wisconsin election results were already expected to come in during the early morning hours of Nov. 6 at the earliest, since the state waits until 7 a.m. on Election Day to start counting absentee ballots. Milwaukee, in particular, gathers all of its absentee ballots at one central count facility, and then reports all of the results at once — often very late on Election Day, if not the morning after.

Vanessa Swales and Alison Dirr contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee absentee ballot rerun: how long will it delay results?