Milwaukee County begins election canvassing, certification process

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The process to certify the spring election results for Milwaukee County began Thursday, April 6.

The Milwaukee County Board of Election Commissioners met as the Board of Canvassers to certify the results of the April 4 election.

"It's just a double check to make sure that everything is accurate and that if there are any discrepancies that happened on election day that we can get those rectified," Milwaukee County Election Commission Election Director Michelle Hawley told CBS 58.

Officials said the county had an overall voter turnout of 45% for the April 4 contests.

The certification process began with the Milwaukee County Board District 14 results because it was a special election with a runoff on May 2.

In that race, three candidates entered Tuesday's election vying for the seat left vacant since January when Dyango Zerpa resigned. Caroline Gomez-Tom and Angel Sanchez were virtually tied with 40.6% and 40.3%, respectively. They will now move on to the May 2 runoff, but before that happens their results must be certified in order for the ballots to begin to be sent out and prepared.

"Ballots generally have to start going out to absentee voters that have an application on file 21 days before the election," Hawley said. "So, they actually have to start going out next Tuesday. So of course, I'm in contact with the printer, they are aware that they are on their way as soon as we can get them to them."

County officials have until Friday, April 14 to complete the certification process.

The process is open to the general public between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. every day of the certification at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.