Wisconsin‘s Democratic gubernatorial primary descended into chaos after election officials said a technical mistake delayed the reporting of thousands of Milwaukee votes, with David Crowley ultimately defeating democratic socialist Francesca Hong by a narrow margin. The Milwaukee Election Commission said five of nine USB drives brought to the central count were missing election results because the devices had downloaded audit logs instead.
Officials said the mistake was the result of good old human error and required workers to return to the operations center to download the results again. “It’s a human error,” Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutierrez said, according to WISN 12 News. When asked whether the problem was essentially someone pressing the wrong button, Gutierrez reportedly responded, “correct.”
Nearly 15,000 ballots remained to be counted when the issue was discovered. The corrected results were then sent back to the Milwaukee County Courthouse for reuploading. By around 1:05 a.m., Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson announced the city’s results.
Crowley received 65,131 votes, or 43.04 percent, compared with Hong’s 62,739 votes, or 41.46 percent, a difference of 2,392 votes. Statewide, the Associated Press reported that Crowley was leading Hong by fewer than 4,000 votes with 98 percent of ballots counted.
People of Wisconsin Seem Suspicious
The late-night delay quickly triggered a wave of suspicion online, particularly among critics who had expected Hong, a progressive favorite, to perform strongly. “Lmao the same city that always has ‘oops’ moments with USB sticks and late-night ballot drops somehow always manages to deliver the exact result the party establishment needed,” wrote one X user.
One of the most popular posts regarding the incident even claimed that “socialists are furious” and even implied that somehow, data was tampered with when officials “fixed” the tally. Such posts have also invited suspicions about the voting and tallying process, where one commenter asked, “Ummmm…..sounds slightly shady. Why are votes on USB sticks at all is my question?”
With that said, there is currently no evidence that the missing results were intentionally withheld or manipulated. Election officials attributed the delay to an operational mistake and said the results had to be downloaded again. Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive and more moderate Democrat, is projected to face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November after Tiffany won the GOP primary.
In any case, Crowley’s victory over Hong reverses a recent string of progressive Democratic primary victories elsewhere and sets up a closely watched general election in Wisconsin. Hong, for the record, has been vocal about defunding police and ICE, as well as prioritizing “socialist” policies such as affordable child care and public schools.
