It will likely be Wednesday before unofficial election Wisconsin results are in. And the state’s chief elections administrator said Monday that there’s nothing wrong with that.
“At no point, will election officials sacrifice accuracy for speed,” Meagan Wolfe said. “They’ve added resources like more poll worker and equipment to create efficiencies. And they will continue to tally until each ballot is counted.”
“If unofficial results aren’t available until the next morning, it does not mean that something went wrong. It means that election officials are doing their job,” said Wolfe. “And their job is to make sure that every valid ballot gets counted.”
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, elections officials are dealing with an unprecedented number of absentee ballots. And unlike many states, counting of those ballots can’t begin until polls open at 7:00 AM Tuesday. “They will continue tally until every ballot is counted,” Wolfe said. “And they will give every ballot the same care and security, despite the larger volume of absentees.”