MILWAUKEE — As election officials across the country Increase safety In the run-up to the November election, the leader of one of the most scrutinized positions in a state where the presidential election is uncertain, said it’s not personal threats or concerns about conflict at the ballot box that keep her up at night.
It’s the little things that can make a big difference once the election rolls around: the day-to-day logistical hassles of making sure everything runs smoothly at the 180 polling places in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city. Think of making sure there are enough ballots and enough poll workers.
“Being a new election administrator is a huge challenge,” Paulina Gutierrez said at the Milwaukee Elections Center as workers prepared to meet Thursday’s deadline for mailing in ballots. “This is a huge logistical operation and making sure, ‘Do we have everything covered?’”
Wisconsin is one of the key political battlegrounds that will help decide the presidency. It is also one of the states where former President Donald Trump contested his loss four years ago and where some of his most loyal supporters served as dummy electors to challenge the results. The pressure on election officials is immense, especially in large Democratic strongholds like Milwaukee, which have been at the center of Trump’s false claims of past election fraud.
The pressure on Gutierrez is heightened because this year’s presidential election is the first major election she will oversee. As early voting approaches, she is undaunted.
“I am confident that my team and I are ready,” she said.
Gutierrez was born and raised in Milwaukee and worked primarily for the state prison system and other municipal positions for 17 years before being appointed head of Milwaukee’s elections department.
Given Milwaukee’s importance in presidential politics, it came as a shock in May, just six months before the election, when the city’s mayor announced that he was replacement of the top election administratorwho presided over the 2020 presidential election and had served on the city’s electoral commission for more than a decade.
Gutierrez, who had been deputy elections director since early 2023, took over. Since then, she has overseen an incident-free August primary and drawn bipartisan praise.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat who appointed Gutierrez, said he had “extreme” confidence in her, citing the smooth primary.
“We have worked diligently, day and night, to ensure that we are able to successfully conduct the election,” Johnson said. “And I am confident that we absolutely will.”
Republicans overseeing the state’s elections also signaled they’re confident Milwaukee and Gutierrez are ready, a sign the elections office may be able to escape the false voting claims and intimidation of staff that have plagued many election offices elsewhere since 2020.
“Paulina has done an exceptional job of understanding everything,” said Doug Haag, the Milwaukee Election Commission Republican member.
He and Republican Bob Spindellwho served as Milwaukee’s elections commissioner for 18 years and now serves on the state Elections Commission, praised both the loyal city staff and volunteers who have kept the process running smoothly.
“We are committed to the integrity of the elections and ensuring that the process runs smoothly,” Haag said.
Spindle, who acted as a fake voter for Trump in 2020 and scooped up after the 2022 midterm elections over efforts to reduce Black and Latino voter turnout in Milwaukee, he said he doesn’t know Gutierrez but praised the way the August primary went and said the city is ready for November.
“Everything seems to be going well,” he said. “I haven’t heard any complaints from anyone.”
The praise is remarkable considering that the control on election officials in the whole country has never been so high. Clerks are also dealing with threats against them and the election workers.
“I haven’t received any threats,” Gutierrez said. “But our office does receive harassing phone calls from time to time. And they’re usually not from our community. We have to be vigilant at all times.”
Political parties and outside groups are working to increase the number of poll watchers in Wisconsin and other swing states, raising concerns about increased risk of confrontations and problems at polling places.
This year brings an extra level of fear after updates to the rules for voting observers were rejected by a Republican-controlled legislative committee, leading to concerns that both observers and poll workers were unaware of the law.
Gutierrez has been receiving guidance over the past four months to prepare.
Her predecessor, Claire Woodall, had a separation agreement with the city that allowed her to work with Gutierrez until August to ensure a smooth transition. Her departure came after former deputy elections commissioner Kimberly Zapata was convicted in March of misconduct in office and fraud by obtaining false ballots. Zapata argued that she acted as a whistleblower and exposed vulnerabilities in the state’s election system.
Since 2020, election officials across Wisconsin have implemented changes to ensure election security, improve the way elections are conducted and avert allegations of misconduct if Trump again challenges the outcome.
These steps include: additional training for officials in the more than 1,800 cities, towns and villages across the state that actually administer elections; and strengthening the security of the state’s voter registration database. They also implemented a series of recommended improvements in a statewide audit and updated mail-in ballot envelopes to reduce common errors and improve visibility into the mail system.
A challenge across the state is that many election officials, like Gutierrez, are new to their roles this year. Wisconsin has seen high turnover in election officials, mirroring the national trend following the 2020 election, and about 40% of county clerks will be administering their first presidential election. Those 72 elected county clerks prepare and distribute ballots to the 1,850 local officials, including Gutierrez, who then administer the election.
Much of Milwaukee’s criticism has arisen because the city sometimes delays reporting mail-in votes that are counted at a central location. State law prohibits reporting partial results, meaning that results in places like Milwaukee and Green Bay, both heavily Democratic, aren’t reported until well into election night in high-turnout elections.
Since 2020, the city has taken steps to speed up the counting of mail ballots, including buying faster machines to process the votes and hiring more workers. Gutierrez expects that about half as many mail ballots will be cast this year as during the pandemic four years ago, which should speed up the counting.
Her top priority, she said, is to ensure that the elections she oversees pass all scrutiny.
“I have dedicated my entire career to public service,” she said. “I was born and raised in the city of Milwaukee. My family lives here. I am committed to making sure we have safe, secure and fair elections.”