Milwaukee, WI
Wisconsin election runs mostly smoothly, despite bomb threats
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.
Polls closed across Wisconsin after an Election Day marked most notably by a human error in Milwaukee that prompted city election officials to count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again, potentially delaying the state’s unofficial results for hours.
In other areas around the state, problems appeared minimal despite long lines and rain. Some election officials said they had unprecedented turnout but managed it. Madison received bomb threats, likely originating from Russia, directed at several current and former polling places, but city police didn’t deem the threats credible and didn’t interrupt voting because of them.
By 9 p.m., election officials had already tabulated around 1.4 million absentee and in-person ballots across the state.
Unlocked tabulator doors prompt decision to count ballots again
In Milwaukee, election chief Paulina Gutiérrez projected that the city’s counting of absentee ballots would go well into Wednesday morning, partially a result of her decision Tuesday afternoon to make election workers count 31,000 absentee ballots all over again because some staff didn’t lock tabulator doors in the early morning.
For security reasons, those panel doors — which cover the on/off switch and sometimes a slot for USB drives — are to be locked during counting, though other security measures ensured there was no chance of tampering.
The decision to restart the count, city spokesperson Jeff Fleming said, was “out of an abundance of caution.”
Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the commission didn’t weigh in on the city’s decision to rerun the batch of ballots, but she praised the city’s transparency throughout the process.
After Gutiérrez made that decision, the city put out an all-call to every Milwaukee employee to help election officials count the ballots that had already been tabulated. Between 30 and 50 city staff from health, fire, and other departments came to help, city spokesperson Caroline Reinwald said.
“Things are moving really smoothly right now and quickly, so hopefully this isn’t actually that much of a delay,” she said.
But Republican leaders criticized the oversight that led to the second count. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called Milwaukee’s central count “grotesquely disorganized.” State GOP Chair Brian Schimming said about election officials, “You had one job,” adding that the election operation had gone “ridiculously wrong.”
Johnson said his concerns about Milwaukee election officials’ oversight could be alleviated if they present him video logs of the central counting site as well as records from the initial and second count of the 31,000 absentee ballots, including how they’re split by party. There are video streams of central count, but vote totals weren’t exported in the manner that Johnson was seeking, though each vote has a paper trail, city officials stated.
Milwaukee officials had counted 64,000 absentee ballots of around 108,000 total by 8:30 p.m., including the initial batch of ballots that was rerun through tabulators.
Under Milwaukee rules, all of the city’s ballots are processed and tabulated at one central location. State law doesn’t allow election officials to tabulate or process any ballots before Election Day, a policy that is partially responsible for the typically late reporting of results from absentee ballots.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers tried to change that policy this past legislative session, but the Republican-written proposal to allow some ballot processing on the Monday before an election stalled in the Senate.
“It certainly seems like, if we did have laws that were a little bit different, that allowed pre-processing, like the majority of other states, that potentially we could have unofficial results earlier in the evening,” Wolfe said.
Election Day in Milwaukee was also marked by a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee, alleging that GOP election observers were being restricted at city election sites. The GOP walked back its claims at a Tuesday hearing, conceding there weren’t any issues.
Hoax bomb threat doesn’t disrupt voting
Outside of Milwaukee, election officials faced few issues.
The Madison Police Department received bomb threats for several current and former polling sites via several emails that appeared to be from an automated bot, perhaps linked to Russia, city spokesperson Dylan Brogan said. Police immediately thought they were bogus, and voting wasn’t disrupted at any voting location, Brogan said, though they followed up to make sure everything was fine.
In Thornapple, a northern Wisconsin town that faced a Justice Department lawsuit over its decision not to use accessible voting machines in the past, election officials did have a voting machine in use, said Erin Webster, a local resident who was an election observer on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, by 9 p.m., Wisconsin voters appeared overwhelmingly in support of a constitutional amendment to ban voting by noncitizens across Wisconsin. The amendment would have little practical effect on who can vote under existing laws, but it would bar municipalities from opening their local elections to noncitizens or younger voters.
The state had a surge of early in-person voting, but election officials said that Tuesday was still very busy. Melissa Kono, who has been a clerk in the small northern Wisconsin town of Burnside since 2013, said it was the most intense election she had ever administered in terms of turnout.
Alexander Shur is a reporter for Votebeat based in Wisconsin. Contact Alexander at ashur@votebeat.org.
Milwaukee community members gathered at pop-up events across the northwest side Wednesday as part of “Peace on Every Block,” a week of activities aimed at building community, mentorship and sharing resources for violence prevention.
The week is organized by Advance Peace Milwaukee, Milwaukee Community Cross Roads and Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.
“We want to see everybody win, and that’s the whole theme about it, about healing, coming together, stopping the violence,” Desilynn Smith of Uniting Garden Homes said.
Lorenzo Davis of Advance Peace said the northwest side was a deliberate focus for the effort.
“Because this is where the gun violence is happening, and we’re trying to end the gun violence in the city of Milwaukee. We really want to do what’s best for Milwaukee,” Davis said.
The Milwaukee Police Department reported a 30 percent drop in homicides during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year. But community members say that progress doesn’t always reflect what people are experiencing on the ground.
Watch: ‘Peace on Every Block’ brings Milwaukee community together to fight gun violence
‘Peace on Every Block’ brings Milwaukee community together to fight gun violence
“The data doesn’t lie, that’s true, but when it’s like every day we’re hearing about a shooting, or we’re so connected to it, and so many people connected to it, it just doesn’t appear that way,” Smith said.
The events come as Milwaukee has seen several violent deaths in recent days. 42-year-old Kristy Syed was found shot to death on Milwaukee’s south side.
The Medical Examiner’s Office also identified 19-year-old Savannah Lynn, who was killed after gunfire broke out following a fight on the Fourth of July.
Nine-year-old Jade Riser died after a shooting that happened near East Burleigh Street last Thursday.
Smith said healing is central to any lasting change.
“If we don’t heal, we can’t stop anything, because violence is actually the secondary emotion that is really driven off a lot of pain,” Smith said.
Davis said the young people in these neighborhoods are ready for something better.
“They want to see a better inside Milwaukee. They want to see a better chance for Milwaukee, and they want to do something better for themselves. So, these kids out here, we promote peace with them, and we’re going to back them, and we want to see them win,” Davis said.
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MILWAUKEE — Former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan won’t serve prison time or probation and has been fined $5,000, a judge determined on Wednesday during her sentencing hearing.
It comes after a jury found her guilty of obstruction last year for helping an immigrant evade federal agents.
During the hearing, Dugan’s defense team called two character witnesses to the stand to speak on her behalf, including Rev. Gregory J. O’Meara, who is also a Marquette University Law School faculty member, and Janine Geske, the retired director of the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice and a law professor at Marquette.
“Hannah models what it means to be a Christian,” O’Meara said.
Dugan herself also spoke for the first time since the case against her began.
She told U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman that she tried to “maintain a courtroom with the decorum and safety the public deserves.”
Dugan added her actions on April 18, 2025, when the incident occurred, were “not done with any malicious intent or to advance any personal interest.”
Wrapping up her remarks, Dugan said to the court she has been cast as a scofflaw and a hero, but considers herself neither of those things.
“I am a public servant who’s just trying to do my job,” Dugan said, adding that she has had to retire from public life due to threats against her and her family.
A prosecutor then acknowledged that “she has experienced collateral damage because of her conduct,” but said “judges can’t choose to disregard the law.”
Prosecutors argued that Dugan’s actions amounted to an “abuse of trust” and asked the court’s sentence to reflect that.
Adelman then spoke, saying Dugan made a bad decision and that he doesn’t believe prison is necessary.
“This is a few minutes of conduct for someone who has dedicated her life to public service,” the judge said. “It’s a marked deviation from an otherwise law-abiding life.”
He also noted that Dugan’s actions didn’t stop the ICE agents from arresting the defendant outside the courthouse.
In April of last year, federal agents showed up at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had reentered the country illegally. On that particular day, he was appearing before Dugan’s courtroom for a state battery case.
Dugan confronted the federal agents in a hallway outside the courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office. Following that, she helped Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents eventually caught up to him outside the courthouse.
Dugan was later arrested and charged for her part in the incident, and she was found guilty of obstruction last December; she was acquitted on her concealment charge.
Her lawyers argued during her trial that President Donald Trump’s administration sought to “crush” Dugan in an effort to ensure judicial compliance with the ICE strategy of targeting immigrants as they showed up for court hearings.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has the backing of Trump in his race for governor, urged authorities to “lock her up” in a social media post following her conviction.
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