No 'ballot dumps': Late updates expected on Election Night under current state law

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The city of Milwaukee's top elections official said everything ran smoothly during Tuesday night's election. Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall said everything was done according to state law, despite some late tallies that impacted big races.

The MPS referendum was not on track to pass before the absentee ballots were counted, but it was narrowly approved once all ballots were in.

We heard from a lot of people who went to bed thinking the referendum had been defeated, only to wake up and see that it had passed.

But there were no conspiracies, no so-called ballot dumps, and no problems.

Current state law says all absentee ballots must be processed at the same time, which means late counting is expected when some absentee ballots come in just before the deadline.

Woodall said, "I think we're going to continue to hear this rhetoric, but it's not reflecting reality."

She was talking about sporadic but incessant complaints that late vote totals improperly swing elections.

When initial results from in-person ballots were first posted Tuesday evening, the MPS referendum was losing by a narrow margin. But then absentee ballots were processed and counted -all at once according to state law- and when those totals were added an hour later, the result was different.

No votes had changed, but now all had been counted.

Woodall said, "Things ran very smoothly at central count. And it is just a reflection of what the law is."

But the rules for processing absentee ballots have fueled conspiracy theories and false claims that ballots are "dumped" late to change the results of an election.

That's a lie, but one that has persisted. Former President Trump repeated it again on Election Day in Green Bay when he said, "You know, we won this state, we won this state by a lot. And it came out that we won this state, actually."

A proposal to speed up the process -and cut down on conspiracies- had bipartisan support from state lawmakers last session.

The Monday Processing Bill would have allowed clerks to process -but not tabulate- ballots the day before an election, significantly speeding things up on election day.

Back on March 12, Democratic State Sen. Mark Spreitzer said at the Capitol the bill was needed, "So that we can put to rest complaints from conspiracy theorists."

Clerks were for it, like Milwaukee County's George Christenson, who told us last September, "I think it would take a tremendous amount of pressure off our election workers."

And many Republicans were for it, like Rep. Patrick Snyder of Schofield, who wanted to ease suspicions among his constituents. He said at the time, "The number of ballots sent out matched the ones coming in, but the perception looked like something wasn't right."

But the State Senate let the bill stall.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in February, "I have no idea why Senators would not want to solve this problem of late-night ballot dumps."

So as long as election officials operate under current law, there will likely be late changes to vote totals when absentee ballots are processed.

Woodall said, "It's frustrating that we continue to have to answer these questions, I think, when all we are doing is following state statute."

The Monday Processing Bill that stalled in the Senate was supported by clerks throughout the state.

Woodall said election officials have recommended several changes throughout the years that would help the process run more efficiently, but she said none of those changes have passed.

However, the reason for the late counting of absentee ballots Tuesday night was because the US Postal Service got a batch of them that day and was able to deliver them to central count before the 8 p.m. deadline.

Since they came in the day of the election, Claire Woodall told us the Monday Processing Bill would not have helped them speed up results Tuesday night.