Milwaukee’s election is proceeding smoothly, Paulina Gutierrez, the executive director of the city’s Election Commission, told reporters according to CNN.

“What we’re seeing is long lines and a lot of activity” at polling places, Gutierrez said, including a lot of new voters registering.

Gutierrez also voiced optimism that the pace of counting absentee ballots will speed up as the roughly 300 people working at the city’s hanger-like convention centre hall get used to the process.

She said she still anticipates the absentee count will be finished in the hours after midnight, likely around 2am or 3am, but will have a better sense of timing later in the day.

In his own remarks to reporters, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson noted a bill to allow pre-processing of absentee ballots in Wisconsin before Election Day had been blocked in the state legislature.

However, Johnson said, late-night results are not “something nefarious” — it just means that “we are following state law.”