Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s elections director appears to be playing judge. However, workers supposedly have been handling ballots in key rooms illegal to watchers for weeks.
Numerous sources told The Federalist that city employees are reportedly handling ballots for the Wisconsin Supreme Court competition in secret offices, off limits to observers. Paulina Gutierrez, the Milwaukee Central Count election director, reportedly claimed “police capabilities” to reduce observers from a March 19 conference.
Early election began in the contest March 18, and election day is April 1. For a 10-year name on the state Supreme Court, former Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel will oppose Republican-backed Judge Susan Crawford. In 2023, liberals took command of the court, but with the retirement of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, this competition may determine the state’s highest court’s intellectual balance for decades.
Gutierrez was originally assistant elections director to past Elections Director Claire Woodall-Vogg, as The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported. In order to install a Democrat activist in the city’s 2020 election process, Woodall-Vogg collaborated with the leftist Center for Tech and Civic Life, which distributed close to$ 400 million in” Zuckbucks” from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to election administrators. Additionally, Woodall-Vogg joked with the communist Elections Group about Wisconsin squaring up for Joe Biden at the last minute on election day.  ,
According to Kittle’s report from the day, Milwaukee authorities removed Woodall-Vogg from office in flower 2024. However, Milwaukee election officials were uneasy about replacing her with Gutierrez because she had never participated in a national election before 2024, according to VoteBeat. And Wisconsin liberals feared Gutierrez could be even more hostile to vote dignity. She has experience working” as a community organizer, arbitrator, and expert in restorative justice and weapons plan.”
Key Areas
For the future state Supreme Court vote, Gutierrez reportedly confirmed workers are using key areas in Central Count where observers are barred from entry, a senior spectator who wished to remain anonymous told The Federalist.
The rooms are allegedly used to break the rooms by “ward,” the equivalent of an election district, then examine ballots as they are received. The observer said,” They’re scanning them in before sorting them by ward.” ” Why would it occur in underground”?
The watcher claimed to have personally witnessed the back areas in Milwaukee Central County, which are characterized as offices with “papered over panels but you can’t really see what they’re doing.” According to Gutierrez and the town lawyer, the spectator was informed that” they were using those rooms once more” and that” they had every right to do that.”
Another cause familiar with the matter, who also wished to remain unknown, confirmed to The Federalist Milwaukee poll workers will be using areas at Central Count, impenetrable to observers, to test ballots as received , and form them into wards. The cause claimed that they have been using these areas for months prior to the election.
There are no other towns that actually do it like this, the resource said, adding that it is a big belief issue. ” What , could , arise again there is the issue, it’s not what they say , is , happening”.
In order to maintain clarity, Gutierrez turned down an offer from the Republican National Committee to track actions in those areas, according to the source.
Election prosecutor Daniel Eastman claims that ballots arrive at Central Count in sealed letters with a witness ‘ name and then leave in sealed letters after being in the limited area. But” there’s not a real clear chain of custody between votes that are showing up on vote time for tabulation”, he said.
The Federalist inquired from the offices of the town of Milwaukee and Gutierrez about the restrictions on spectators and election commission in Central County and why. Milwaukee’s communications director, Jeff Fleming, claimed that the town “respects state laws and regulations established by the Wisconsin Election Commission.”
” Steps taken to keep an orderly election process are frequently taken in conversation with our prosecutors and State election authorities”, Fleming said. ” All routines during Milwaukee votes were required to be made public. Sorting actions are never required to be made public.
The Black Curtain
Milwaukee Central Count experienced some of the worst election morality problems in November. One, however, attracted a lot less attention: the dark veil.
On election day, the dolphins on 13 tabulators were broken, so employees had to tell 31, 000 vote, as The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported. Republican Senator Ron Johnson visited the Central Count and stated at the time,” the level of incompetence may lead you to believe some of this is nefarious… But the best way to explain it is greatly incompetent.”
Employees were keeping watchers out of a shadow of a black veil while election dignity advocates focused on damaged tabulator seals. According to the resource familiar with the situation, Milwaukee officials used a black screen in lieu of the key areas due to Central Count being at a diverse area, The Wisconsin Center.
No one could get behind this dark curtain, he said, according to attorney Ferris Stephens, who told The Federalist that during a review prior to the election night. ” Someone questioned why,” they replied,” for “health and safety reasons.”
Each poll “has to get admitted into the house, and then it comes out the front of the dark curtain”, according to Eastman, who was there with Stephens on election day. The ballots are presented at a table with others from their hospital for handling and counting after going behind the scenes. At one point on election day, Eastman claimed a few congressional observers were permitted behind the curtain, but” we can’t go back it.”
At 2 a. m. on election day, Stephens said he saw staff wheeling “huge containers” of votes behind the screen.
” A million crimson flags came up after doing this. There is no one monitoring these natural vote, I said. They’re being sent into this back area, and we were told we couldn’t get up it”, Stephens said. They were so adamant that I could not go up there, so I started trying to follow them up.
Stephens claimed that as employees wheeled the votes through, he kept the curtain available. ” They were really emphatic,’ Shut it, locked it, shut it.’ I’m asking myself,” Why?”
He claimed he and Eastman followed them outside the screen but were unable to discover where employees were taking the votes because he had noticed the large size of the curtain. Finally, Stephens returned to the screen access — but four police officers were guarding it.
One of them said,” You can’t go in there,” one of them said. We were told,” We can’t,” Stephens said. ” He said’ Only certain people can go back there, and you’re not one of them.'”
Officers assured Eastman that they would not let Stephens leave the room. What are they hiding, he inquired?
Booting Oversight With’ Police Powers ‘
The senior observer told The Federalist that Gutierrez was challenged by another attendee at the Milwaukee Central Count meeting on March 19.
She claimed that she has “police powers” if he is out of line or if anyone is out of line, according to the observer in an interview with The Federalist. ” That was to reinforce with everybody there that she was not going to put up with any challenges”.
Eastman was present at the same meeting and confirmed to The Federalist that she was “telling everyone she has “police powers” to evict you.” He claimed that when she addressed the ballots to the ward table, she said, “you get to see them]the ballots.”
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”. However, according to a source close to The Federalist, the statute also grants administrators” the authority to remove observers” and” the ability to limit what observers can and cannot see”
The City of Milwaukee and Gutierrez’s office were contacted by The Federalist to inquire about whether Gutierrez had “police powers” to remove them and 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”.
According to Fleming,” The City of Milwaukee adheres to Wisconsin Election Commission promulgated state law and regulations.” The chief inspector has the sole authority to impose a removal of an observer, but another election inspector may take note of their agreement 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. The chief inspector” should summon local law enforcement” if the observer refuses to do so. He claimed that the chief inspector must provide a written order, including his signature, that from an inspector of another political party, “if available,” as well as a justification.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , claimed , on election day that” Wisconsin has secure elections”. However, in Milwaukee in 2020, there were late-night , ballot dumps and” Zuckbucks” meddling. It was the site of alleged ballot harvesting, broken tabulator , seals, and a enigmatic “black curtain” in 2024. As one unnamed source said,” this is a major perception issue”.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer who writes about the integrity of elections. He is a The College Fix spring 2025 fellow. 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 originally from Central Oregon, but he now resides in rural Michigan.
