GOP elections chair wants to 'get rid' of Milwaukee's central count
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The chair of the state Assembly’s elections committee said he wants to get rid of Milwaukee's centralized absentee ballot counting facility, known as central count.
Rep. David Maxey, the GOP chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, told CBS 58 he'd like to move away from central count and instead have absentee ballots counted at each polling place.
"I would like to get rid of central count in Milwaukee," said Maxey. "I was there [on Election Day] and they started counting pretty early this time, but it did not need to be done at central count."
During the April 1 election, Maxy toured central count in Milwaukee and said he visited seven or eight polling locations across the city.
He believes scrapping the central count model that's been in place since 2017 would improve the efficiency of reporting election results.
"When I went to different polling locations, I saw several people standing around waiting to do something," said Maxey. "They could have been processing absentee ballots at the polling location."
The city uses a central count facility to count ballots while polls open at 7 a.m. Upwards to 300 workers staffed the facility during the November presidential election.
Officials have said they use the centralized location because it's secure and effective to count ballots where it's publicly accessible. During the April 1st election, Milwaukee processed over 50,000 absentee ballots at central count.
Paulina Gutierrez, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said abolishing central count would create headaches.
"Without Central Count, the City of Milwaukee would be required to sort 50,000 ballots and have them transported securely to 180 polling locations," Gutierrez said. "Central Count provides the most transparency for observers to witness the processing of absentee ballots."
More than 40 municipalities are authorized to use central count locations, according to the state Elections Commission.
Mark Tomsen, a Democratic who serves on the Elections Commission, slammed the idea of overhauling central count.
"We've had central counts all over the state and it's worked well," Thomsen said. "This is just another attempt to pick on Milwaukee. It's sour grapes. Period.
When asked if he'd bring forth a bill to eliminate central count, Maxey said, "I don't like to propose any bills that would go in front of my own committee."
Maxey added he has not discussed eliminating central count with his colleagues since visiting polling sites last week.
Monday Processing Bill
A bill that would allow election officials to begin processing absentee ballots the Monday before an election is likely to come before Maxey's committee again this year.
The bill passed the Assembly with bipartisan support last session but died in the Senate. Gov. Tony Evers has called on lawmakers to send him the proposal that's geared towards speeding up election results.
Earlier this year, Rep. Scott Krug, the former chair of the Assembly Elections Commitee who authored the Monday processing last year, told reporters he believed the bill would be introduced after the April election.
Maxey said he's not taking a stance on the issue because a bill hasn't been drafted yet, but suggested he might not support the proposal.
"I would support it unless a few people tell me they didn't like it," Maxey said. "I've had constituents call and email telling me they are not fans of it, but I had equal numbers that called me and said otherwise."
Last session, Maxey voted in favor of the Monday processing bill.
"If there's a question of efficiency or timeliness, all lawmakers have to do is pass a bill to fix it to allow clerks to start counting ballots earlier," Thomsen said.
Milwaukee is known for its late-night tallies of absentee ballots that, at times, can shift the results in the Democratic-leaning city.
Officials warn each election that Milwaukee absentee ballots will be reported late because as the state's most populated city, they often take hours to process tens of thousands of ballots.
The city is known to deliver decisive votes to decide the state's winner, which as resulted in long debunked concerns about voting fraud.
In 2024, U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde claimed, without evidence, he was the victim of election fraud after losing to his Democratic opponent Sen. Tammy Baldwin when Milwaukee reported their results.
The city finished counting over 100,000 ballots around 4 a.m., which ultimately gave Baldwin enough votes to take the lead over Hovde.
Hovde said he was "shocked" by the reporting of Milwaukee's absentee ballot results early Wednesday morning after the election.
Milwaukee's election reporting also swung the election in 2020 when Democrat Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump, fueling conspiracy theories about his loss.