(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and challenger Eric Hovde, a Republican, was too close to call on Tuesday night.
Hovde had 49.1% of the vote while Baldwin had 48.8% with 60% of the vote reported.
Many absentee ballots throughout the state – including about 108,325 in Milwaukee – had yet to be added to the statewide results as of 10 p.m. central time.
An earlier issue found with a tabulator seal led Milwaukee central count facility to restart its process, after 30,000 ballots had already been counted, after 4 p.m. on Tuesday out of an abundance of caution.
Wisconsin Election Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said Tuesday night that no equipment malfunctioned and no ballots were compromised in the process.
The Milwaukee Fire Department sent 24 firefighters to central count to assist in the tabulation after the issue occurred, according to media reports.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday in most places, with those in line at 8 allowed to complete the voting process.
Wisconsin entered the day with 3,658,236 active registered voters of the estimated voting age population of 4,713,323. Voters were allowed to register at the polls on Tuesday with a valid ID and proof of address.
In all, Wisconsin had 35 jurisdictions with central count locations for absentee ballots, meaning that all of the ballots in those spots will be counted collectively and added to unofficial voting counts after the Election Day in-person votes.
Wisconsin had 955,906 in-person absentee votes and 584,382 had returned mail-in absentee ballots as of numbers posted on Tuesday morning.
