MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee election officials are recounting about 31,000 ballots due to a tabulation error.

Several hours after counting mail-in ballots began at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, Central Count officials in Milwaukee discovered there was a problem with the physical sealing of the counting machines – “some doors were not fully secured by senior election officials.” , the Milwaukee Electoral Commission (MEC) said in a statement.

All 13 machines involved are reset out of an abundance of caution. When the machines are reset, all 31,000 ballots will be run through the machines again.

The decision to recount the ballots was “made in consultation with Republican and Democratic representatives,” the MEC statement said.

Watch: Jenna Rae explains why Milwaukee needs to recount about 30,000 ballots:

Postal ballots are being counted again due to a tabulation problem in the central counting system

Election officials say this will delay complete election results in Milwaukee by several hours.

Here is the full statement from the Milwaukee Election Commission:

“This afternoon, leadership at the Milwaukee Election Commission (MEC) was made aware of an issue where the tabulator doors were fully attached. Each machine has a door that should have been locked and sealed. It appears that some doors were not fully secured by senior election officials.” The City of Milwaukee has no doubt about the integrity of the election. However, to clear all doubts, the MEC has decided to restart the counting process for all ballot papers at Central Count Approximately 31,000 ballot papers will be re-counted. There is no estimate as to how long it will take to be accurate in Milwaukee's election results. We will keep the news media informed of any further updates on this matter.

Paulina Gutierrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Elections Commission, is expected to provide an update to the media on this situation soon.

We will update this story with more details as we receive them.

Find out where you can vote, what's on your ballot and more here on TMJ4's election page.

It's time to start paying attention to your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching “TMJ4” on your device.

Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and more.

Report a typo or error