Source: Deputy director responsible for Milwaukee election mishap; director outlines changes before November

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — One of Milwaukee's top election officials was directly responsible for a mistake that delayed the city's reporting of absentee voting results during this month's primary election. 

A state source told CBS 58 Wednesday that Maricha Harris, deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, was the official who hit the wrong button five different times on vote-counting machines late in the night on August 11. The mistake downloaded audit logs onto a memory stick instead of election results.

There's no evidence the error affected the city's election results, but the hour-long delay was the third election issue in as many years, following a door left unsecured on a vote-counting machine in 2024 and a ballot shortage last spring.

Now, multiple levels of state government are seeking answers. The Wisconsin Elections Commission will vote Monday, Aug. 31 on whether to formally seek a response from Milwaukee about what changes the city will implement ahead of the November election.

"Fair or unfair, the eyes of the nation are often on Milwaukee," the state commission wrote to the MEC in a letter draft posted to WEC's website. "Providing transparency into the system, especially when a mistake occurs, is a critical service to the voters of our state."

Paulina Gutierrez, director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, told CBS 58 Wednesday the agency is already instituting changes in the wake of this month's mishap.

"We're working on updating our written procedures. So, we already had written procedures; we already have already done training," Gutierrez said. "We're gonna enhance those procedures to include visual images. We're looking at doing a point-and-call process where we're verbalizing what's happening."

Gutierrez declined to say whether or not Harris was the elections official who repeatedly downloaded the wrong information. Calling it a personnel matter, Gutierrez said the matter ultimately stopped with her as the executive director.

"I can't get inside of someone's head," Gutierrez said. "They had written procedures, they had been trained, they had done it multiple times before, but humans are humans, and it was an error."

A CBS 58 reporter saw Harris in a hallway at City Hall outside of the MEC office. Harris confirmed it was her but declined to respond when asked if she was the official who downloaded the wrong info, referring questions to Gutierrez.

Gutierrez also confirmed she's planning to prepare a response to State Rep. Dave Maxey (R-New Berlin), who chairs the Assembly's election committee.

Maxey sent a series of questions to Gutierrez Friday seeking details on what went wrong at central count and how the city will adjust its procedures before November.

"Trust in our elections is not built on the absence of fraud alone. It is built on competence, consistency, and transparency," Maxey wrote. "If you cannot correct these mistakes and finally give Milwaukee voters an election operation they can count on, then I believe you should resign."

Gutierrez said her response to Maxey will largely mirror what the city will provide to WEC. 

"It's very cut and dry what occurred and what I've repeated to the media and what I will be providing to both the elected official and the Wisconsin Elections Commission," she said. "We are working on reviewing all the circumstances of what occurred, and we'll record in detail what we're doing to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Mark Thomsen, a Democratic appointee to the six-member WEC government body, said he believed part of the issue stemmed from the central count process taking longer than needed because the Republican-controlled Legislature has repeatedly failed to pass bills allowing absentee ballot processing to start the Monday before election day.

At the same time, Thomsen said he hoped the MEC would be more transparent about what exactly went wrong this month.

"The city must immediately identify the glitch," Thomsen said, "So it doesn't happen again in November."