Here's when Milwaukee reported its absentee ballot results in recent November elections

As has become custom in recent elections, all eyes will likely be on the results of the city of Milwaukee's absentee ballots come Nov. 5.

Or, rather, Nov. 6.

Sometime after midnight.

"I don't think that we'll go as late as we did for the pandemic, but it will still be a late night," Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paulina Gutiérrez said Tuesday as early in-person voting began.

This year, she's anticipating city voters will cast about 80,000 absentee ballots.

In past years, some Republicans have used the city's overnight reporting of absentee ballot results to falsely claim something was amiss in the election administration of Wisconsin's largest city.

Here's why the city's absentee ballots are reported late at night and the times the city's results have been reported in the November elections dating back to the 2018 election for governor, based on previous Journal Sentinel reporting:

Milwaukee absentee ballots number in the tens of thousands and take time to count, upload

Even before early in-person absentee voting began Tuesday morning, Milwaukeeans had returned 23,415 absentee ballots to the city Election Commission. That number will only grow as residents cast their absentee ballots at the city's 10 early voting locations, which will be open until Nov. 3.

Like about three-dozen other municipalities across the state, the city counts its absentee ballots at a single location known as central count and reports those results all at once.

Under Wisconsin law, those ballots cannot be processed before 7 a.m. on Election Day. That means that especially in high-turnout elections like those for president, the city's absentee ballot results are often reported late at night because of the sheer number that must be counted.

Once all the absentee ballots have been counted, a second lengthy process begins.

Election Commission staff must export the results from each of the 13 machines that count the absentee votes onto thumb drives, which are then secured in a bag and taken by a bipartisan team to the Milwaukee County Courthouse in a police vehicle, Gutiérrez said. There, they are uploaded to the county's election-night website, a process that also takes time.

The volume of ballots in this heavily Democratic city means those votes can change the course of statewide elections when they are added to the total.

Republican-controlled state Senate declined to change state law to allow earlier processing, therefore reporting, of absentee ballots

The Republican-controlled state Senate earlier this year declined to change the law to allow clerks to start processing absentee ballots on the day before Election Day.

The death of the bipartisan bill has left open the door to more false claims about late-night "ballot dumps" in Milwaukee, like the ones former President Donald Trump made after he lost Wisconsin in 2020.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson in recent comments to the Rotary Club of Milwaukee said he had hoped by now the state Legislature would have given municipalities this additional flexibility.

The lack of action, he said, means that the city will report its absentee ballot results long after polls close.

"It's not some manipulated, concerted ballot dump," he said. "It's really the unfortunate reality of Wisconsin law. ... So, when folks are coming around and saying, 'Oh, there was a ballot dump and there was a conspiracy and Milwaukee is cheating,' and all that — no, what we're doing is following the state law, and unfortunately, that's where the state law leads us to today."

Nov. 8, 2022: Milwaukee Election Commission arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse about 11 p.m.

Absentee ballots returned by City of Milwaukee voters: 61,486

The city's goal was to complete its counting of absentee ballots by 11 p.m. or midnight. It accomplished that goal.

A Journal Sentinel reporter posted a video on the social media platform X at 11:03 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2022, of then-Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall walking into the Milwaukee County Courthouse cafeteria with the city's absentee ballot results.

The reporter's subsequent post on X at 11:48 p.m. showed Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson announcing that the city's results had been uploaded to the county's website.

Still outstanding at that time were results from Oak Creek, Shorewood and Wauwatosa.

Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election: All Milwaukee County results, including City of Milwaukee, available by about 4 a.m.

Absentee ballots returned by City of Milwaukee voters: 169,519

The coronavirus pandemic prompted voters to turn to absentee ballots like never before, and the City of Milwaukee was no exception.

City officials arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse with absentee ballot results about 3:15 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2020, according to a video of their arrival posted to X by a Journal Sentinel reporter.

All of the results from across Milwaukee County, including the City of Milwaukee, were complete about an hour later, according to a follow-up video posted at 4:12 a.m.

Nov. 6, 2018: Gubernatorial election showed the power of Milwaukee absentee ballots

Absentee ballots returned by City of Milwaukee voters: More than 47,000, according to Journal Sentinel reporting at the time.

The reporting of Milwaukee's absentee ballots around midnight gave Democratic challenger Tony Evers his first solid lead in the race against incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Evers ultimately won.

Walker and other Republicans were critical of the time the city released its absentee ballot results, and Milwaukee's then-top election official called on the governor to apologize for accusing the city of "incompetence."

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why Milwaukee expects to report absentee ballot results after midnight