“At 9 o’clock they realized they hadn’t plugged the machines in. They also realized at about 8:30 or 9 o’clock that they don’t have enough people [poll workers], so now they’re calling firefighters,” Brandtjen said. City officials reportedly had to bring in as many as 40 firefighters, health workers, and IT employees to assist in the ballot recount.

By 11 a.m., Brandtjen said, Central Count had processed just 5,000 absentee ballots out of the 108,000 mountain of early votes to be counted. Mid-afternoon, Republican observers noticed the seals on the machines had been broken, not locked as they should have been at that point.

Milwaukee election officials were forced to pull more than 30,000 ballots and begin the count over, as observers raised concerns about ballot security and integrity. The ballot count dragged on and on.

Of the13 different speed counters, Brandtjen said at no point did she see them all operating at the same time.

“…[T]his is a plan to go as late as possible to make sure there are only a half-dozen people left in the room,” the lawmaker said. “All of these things just lead to absolutely no confidence in the process. For those who have done it multiple years, it was the worst they’ve ever seen.” //

Brandtjen said there’s no reason for Milwaukee to finish ballot counting at 3 or 4 in the morning.

“To go late, I think, is a plan to see if there is a way to find additional allots or make up the difference for candidates,” she said. //

Robert Spindell, a Republican member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, agreed that Central Count was plagued by too many problems that should never have happened and that it appears to him that those running the show “wanted the results from Central Count to come in very late.” //

But Hovde said the problem is bigger than Milwaukee. In the video, he noted the nearly 8 million names listed on the voter rolls of a state with less than 6 million residents. The database includes more than 3.6 million “active” voters, eligible voters cleared to vote in elections.