Mary Spicuzza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

City of Milwaukee officials are defending their handling of more than 47,000 absentee ballots in Tuesday's midterm election following criticism from Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans.

City election officials turned over Milwaukee's absentee ballots for official verification after midnight. Those results — which included 38,674 votes for Democrat Tony Evers and 7,181 votes for Republican Gov. Scott Walker — helped give Democratic gubernatorial candidate his first comfortable lead over Walker.

Evers, the state schools chief, eventually edged Walker by about 31,000 votes.

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch raised the possibility of a recount early Wednesday when she took the stage at the Ingleside Hotel in Waukesha s the city's outstanding absentee ballots were being reported. She told the crowd that volunteers and donations would be needed for a likely recount.

"The fight is not over," Kleefisch told supporters around 1 a.m. "I am here to tell you this morning that this race is a dead heat. It's too close to call."

Shortly afterward, Walker campaign adviser Brian Reisinger said the governor would wait until the official canvass and tallying military ballots before deciding what to do.

"Thousands of ballots were damaged and had to be re-created," Reisinger said in a statement. "Until there is a comparison of the original ballots to the re-created ballots, there is no way to judge their validity."

But city officials pushed back Wednesday morning, saying that only about 2,000 of the City of Milwaukee's absentee ballots were damaged.

Neil Albrecht, executive director of the city's Election Commission, said workers at the "central count" location began counting absentee ballots as soon as they could — after the polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

ELECTION RESULTS:Wisconsin and Milwaukee-area midterm races

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Those absentee ballots included about 2,000 "damaged ballots," including some that got adhesive from glue sticks used to seal the envelopes on them, Albrecht said.

He added that some ballots are reconstructed during every election.

"It was a process that was entirely transparent to the public," Albrecht said. "We had observers at 'central count' yesterday from the political parties right up until the point we closed."

He also said city officials had worked with other municipal clerks to lobby the Republican-controlled Legislature last session to allow "true early voting" in the state of Wisconsin.

That would allow early voters to put their ballots in a tabulator rather than being treated as voters casting absentee ballots.

Asked about the comments about damaged ballots, Albrecht said, "There's an unfortunate allegation in there that can lead to some mistrust of the election process."

That didn't stop Walker from criticizing Milwaukee officials in his concession announcement later Wednesday, when he cited, "questions about how the city of Milwaukee executed its election night operations."

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But Mayor Tom Barrett on Wednesday defended the city's Election Commission and celebrated the high turnout in the city, and called it a "new morning in the State of Wisconsin."

Barrett said that he thought city residents turned out in droves for Evers because they were tired of Walker's efforts to "isolate the City of Milwaukee."

"If there's one lesson that comes out of this election, it's that the days of running against Milwaukee are probably over," Barrett said. "Milwaukee is a benefit to the State of Wisconsin. And we're proud of that."

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