Sources: Milwaukee Officials Handle Ballots In Back Rooms

The elections director of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is apparently playing sheriff. Meanwhile, workers allegedly have been handling ballots in secret rooms inadmissible to observers for weeks.

City workers are allegedly using secret offices, off limits for observers, to handle ballots for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, multiple sources told The Federalist. Milwaukee Elections Director Paulina Gutierrez also allegedly claimed “police powers” to remove observers in a March 19 meeting at Milwaukee Central Count.

Early voting began in the race March 18, and election day is April 1. Former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, backed by Republicans, is running against Democrat-backed Judge Susan Crawford for a 10-year term on the state Supreme Court. Leftists took control of the court in 2023, but with the retirement of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, this race could decide the ideological tilt of the state’s highest court for years.

Gutierrez was formerly deputy elections director to former Elections Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, as The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported. The leftist Center for Tech and Civic Life, which funneled close to $400 million in “Zuckbucks” from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to election administrators, worked with Woodall-Vogg to install a Democrat activist in the city’s 2020 election process. Woodall-Vogg also joked with the leftist Elections Group about Wisconsin flipping for then-candidate Joe Biden at the last second on election night. 

Milwaukee officials ousted Woodall-Vogg from office in spring 2024, as Kittle reported at the time. But according to VoteBeat, Milwaukee election workers were uneasy about replacing her with Gutierrez due to a lack of experience — she had never worked a federal election before 2024. And Wisconsin conservatives feared Gutierrez could be even more hostile to election integrity. She has a background working “as a community organizer, mediator, and restorative justice and gun policy specialist.”

Secret Rooms

For the upcoming state Supreme Court election, Gutierrez allegedly confirmed workers are using secret rooms in Central Count where observers are barred from access, a senior observer who wished to remain anonymous told The Federalist.

The rooms are purportedly used to scan ballots as received then divide them by “ward” — the equivalent of an election precinct. “They’re scanning them in, and then they’re sorting them by ward,” the observer said. “Why would it happen in secret?”

The observer claimed to have personally seen the back rooms in Milwaukee Central Count — described as offices with windows “papered over so you can’t actually see what they’re doing.” Gutierrez and the city attorney allegedly confirmed to the observer “they were using those rooms again” and that “they had every right to do that.”

Another source familiar with the matter, who similarly wished to remain unnamed, confirmed to The Federalist Milwaukee election workers will be using rooms at Central Count, inaccessible to observers, to scan ballots as received and sort them into wards. The source said they have been using these rooms for weeks ahead of the election.

“It is a major perception issue, and there are no other municipalities that really do it like this,” the source said. “What could happen back there is the issue, it’s not what they say is happening.”

Gutierrez turned down an offer from the Republican National Committee to monitor activities in those rooms for the sake of transparency, according to the source.

Ballots arrive at Central Count in sealed envelopes with a witness signature, then emerge from the restricted area in sealed envelopes, according to election attorney Daniel Eastman. But “there’s not a real clear chain of custody between ballots that are showing up on election day for tabulation,” he said.

The Federalist asked the city of Milwaukee and Gutierrez’s office whether there are any areas in Central Count where observers or election commissioners are not allowed, and why. Jeff Fleming, Milwaukee communications director, told The Federalist the city “follows state law and rules promulgated by the Wisconsin Election Commission.”

“Actions taken to maintain an orderly election process are routinely taken in consultation with our attorneys and State election officials,” Fleming said. “All activities during elections in Milwaukee required to be public were public. Certain sorting activities are not required to be public.”

The Black Curtain

Some of November’s worst election integrity issues happened at Milwaukee Central Count. But one drew far less attention — the black curtain.

On election night, the seals on 13 tabulators were broken, so workers had to recount 31,000 ballots, as The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson went to inspect the Central Count, and said at the time “the level of incompetence would lead you to believe some of this is nefarious … But the best way I can describe it is grossly incompetent.” 

While election integrity advocates focused on broken tabulator seals, workers were keeping observers out from behind a black curtain. According to the source familiar with the situation, Milwaukee administrators used a black curtain in lieu of the secret rooms due to Central Count being at a different location, The Wisconsin Center.

Attorney Ferris Stephens told The Federalist that during a walkthrough ahead of election night, officials told observers “no one could go back there.” “Nobody could go behind this black curtain,” he said. “Someone asked why… They said, for ‘health and safety reasons.’”

Each ballot “has to be admitted into the hall, and then it comes out the front of the black curtain,” according to Eastman, who was there with Stephens on election night. After going behind the curtain, the ballots come out to a table with others from their ward for processing and counting. Eastman said a couple congressional observers were allowed behind the curtain at one point on election night, “but the people who paid for the curtain… we can’t go back there.”

At 2 a.m. on election night, Stephens said he saw workers wheeling “huge containers” of ballots behind the curtain.

“Having done this, a million red flags came up. I said, there’s nobody guarding these raw ballots. They’re being sent into this back room, and we were told we couldn’t go back there,” Stephens said. “I started trying to follow them back, they were adamant that I could not go back there.”

Stephens said he held the curtain open for workers as they wheeled the ballots through. “They were just adamant, ‘Shut it, shut it, shut it.’ I’m thinking, ‘Why?’”

He noticed the curtain was sheer enough to see where workers were taking the ballots, so Stephens said he and Eastman ran to follow them outside the curtain but lost sight. Ultimately, Stephens returned to the curtain entrance — but four police officers were guarding it.

“One of them said, ‘You can’t go in there. We were told you can’t,’” Stephens said. “He said ‘Only certain people can go back there, and you’re not one of them.’”

Eastman confirmed officers would not let Stephens behind the curtain. He asked, “What are they hiding?”

Booting Oversight With ‘Police Powers’

Eastman attended the same meeting and confirmed to The Federalist she was “telling everybody she has ‘police powers’ to evict you.” He said she told observers “you get to see them [the ballots] when they come out and head to the ward table.”

Wisconsin Statute 7.41(2) dictates “[t]he observation areas shall be so positioned to permit any election observer to readily observe all public aspects of the voting process.” But the source familiar told The Federalist the statute also allows administrators “the ability to remove observers” and “the ability to restrict what observers can and cannot see.”

The Federalist asked the city of Milwaukee and Gutierrez’s office questions like whether Gutierrez told observers she has “police powers” to remove them and under what legal basis. Fleming said “when a disruptive observer is subject to removal,” officials use a template “Order to Leave Polling Place, Clerk’s Office, or Alternate Absentee Ballot Site.”

“The City of Milwaukee follows state law and rules promulgated by the Wisconsin Election Commission,” Fleming said. “The chief inspector has sole authority to order the removal of an observer, but another election inspector may note his or her concurrence or disagreement.”

He said if a warning is issued and an “offending observer” continues “disorderly behavior,” the chief inspector “should order” the observer to leave. If the observer does not comply, the chief inspector “should summon local law enforcement.” He said the chief inspector is required to provide a written order, including his signature, that from an inspector of another political party “if available,” and a reason.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel claimed on election day that “Wisconsin has secure elections.” But in 2020, Milwaukee was home to “Zuckbucks” meddling and late-night ballot dumps. In 2024, it was the site of alleged ballot harvesting, broken tabulator seals, and a mysterious “black curtain.” As one unnamed source said, “this is a major perception issue.”

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.