Milwaukee primary results delayed about 90 minutes after USB drives failed to download election data, according to report

A reported voting systems malfunction delayed the release of key primary results in Milwaukee by about 90 minutes, after election workers encountered failures when attempting to download election data from USB flash drives, Fox News reported on Aug. 13.

According to the report, the issue emerged when election staff tried to retrieve results data from five separate USB flash drives that failed to download properly. The failure delayed the point at which officials could post or certify the affected results for the period the drives were not successfully readable, the report said.

Fox News tied the delay to a close primary contest in which David Crowley narrowly defeated Francesca Hong. The report described the mismatch between when votes were processed and when results could be made available, noting that the final outcome for the race depended on receiving the data needed to tabulate and release results.

The report characterized the problem as “human error,” describing the incident as part of a broader pattern of voting administration disruptions in multiple states, and it described the Milwaukee delay as the latest example of election technology or procedure problems impacting result timing.

While the report focuses on the timeline and the USB download failures, it did not provide in its summary whether the election system ultimately required reprocessing ballots, whether any ballots were adjudicated due to missing or corrupted files, or whether election staff used alternate data transfer methods to restore access to the affected results. The report also did not specify whether any internal audits or formal incident reports were filed.

Election administrators typically treat timing delays differently from ballot counting errors, since results release can be affected by data transfer issues even when votes have been recorded. In this case, the practical effect described by the report was a postponement of when the public could see or verify the primary results tied to the affected data transfer.

Fox News said the delay lasted about 90 minutes, and it reported that Crowley’s narrow win over Hong was among the results that were not updated on the usual timetable. The next steps for voters and candidates generally include confirmation that the vote data were recovered correctly, review of any incident logs, and issuance of final certified results when the affected data can be validated.