Detroit predicting high turnout, faster count in presidential race

City Clerk Janice Winfrey is predicting up to 290,000 votes could be cast in Detroit for the presidential election, which would surpass the city’s turnout in elections going back to 2012.

Winfrey said in-person early voting results and absentee ballot returns put Detroit on track to hit a turnout rate of 51% to 55%. Winfrey held a Thursday press conference at Huntington Place, where the city is processing absentee ballots. She said roughly 22,000 citizens cast ballots at early voting sites that opened Oct. 19 while 81,000 people have turned in absentee ballots so far. 

“I’m proud of that number,” Winfrey said. 

The clerk expects 35,000 people will vote early, 100,000 will turn in absentee ballots and 150,000 will vote on Nov. 5. Sunday is the last day people can use early-voting sites to cast ballots in person. 

Here’s how that compares to the past four presidential elections: 

• 2008 – 53% turnout, with 336,522 votes total
• 2012 – 51% turnout, with 290,354 votes total
• 2016 – 49% turnout, with 248,780 votes total
• 2020 – 51% turnout, with 257,619 votes total 

Work to pre-process absentee ballots is already underway, allowing election officials to prepare ballots for counting on Election Day. Early voting has allowed the clerk to get a jump on work that used to happen all on one night, thanks to changes in state law approved by Michigan voters.

Results could be in by midnight, said Chris Thomas, an advisor hired by the city after his retirement from state elections director. 

Roughly 750 poll workers have been processing absentee ballots in Detroit since early voting started, each working three day shifts. 

A shipment of absentee ballots is delivered to the processing center every morning from the Department of Elections, which collects the ballots from drop boxes and early voting sites. Poll workers inspect each ballot, verify each voter’s identity and prepare the ballots for counting on Election Day. 

Election Day results will be delivered to the Department of Elections and uploaded for distribution to the Wayne County Clerk and city’s results website on Nov. 5. 

Detroit’s absentee processing center was besieged with disproven allegations of election tampering during the 2020 race, and became a target for Republican protesters who gathered outside the building with demands to “stop the count.” Winfrey said a comprehensive set of security and process changes were made to ensure poll workers will be unimpeded by potential challenges.

“Why is the security so necessary? November 2020,” said Detroit Elections Administrator Daniel Baxter. “We were in the midst of COVID, the world was upside down, but we didn’t anticipate the type of shenanigans that occurred. Over the past four years we’ve been hearing about some of the same measures that may take place. We expect and hope for the best and plan for the worst.” 

Winfrey said the security plan was created in coordination with state, county and local police, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, U.S. Department of Justice and Huntington Place’s private security firm. Access to the absentee processing center will only be granted to poll workers, partisan poll challengers and credentialed media who present identification. 

Ten police officers are deployed around Huntington Place to respond to disturbances or illegal activity. The site is being monitored aerially. The voting center was moved into a different area of the convention center to provide more space. 

A Detroit Police Officer is shadowing Winfrey at all times to ensure her safety, a measure the clerk didn’t think was necessary until a man appeared outside her home after the 2020 race. Winfrey said she was threatened with violence, and even purchased a handgun after the incident. Officers are also escorting poll workers to and from their vehicles to protect them from potential harassment. 

Winfrey said she’s grateful that the state Legislature passed a law that makes threatening election workers a felony crime. 

Detroit election officials said they have not received any threats as of Thursday. A series of security enhancements were also made at the Elections Department headquarters in New Center, including the installation of bulletproof glass, surveillance cameras and a panic button. 

In 2020, Trump supporters who banged on glass windows outside the ballot processing center argued Republicans were not given fair access to monitor the work.

Baxter said the city struck an agreement with the Republican National Committee to ensure an equal number of poll workers are hired from each party. The agreement is in response to a lawsuit filed by the RNC arguing Detroit appointed 2,340 Democrat poll workers and only 308 Republican poll workers in the August election. 

“Today, we have one Republican representative at each one of our 50 counting boards, we have one (Republican) poll worker at each one of our 14 early vote centers, and we are still working to ensure that we have one (Republican) poll worker at each of our 400 precincts,” Baxter said. “We haven’t reached parity as of yet at our precincts, but once that’s done and accomplished, then we will work to add additional poll workers here at the counting board, at the early vote center and at the precincts.” 

Scattered claims about election integrity in Detroit have persisted, despite the failure of lawsuits to show evidence of fraud. Baxter said the reason is simple. 

“It’s because we’re a Black city,” Baxter said. “When you look at some of the attacks that have been made on communities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, that’s where Black people live. Since 2020 we have restructured our operation.” 

Baxter said changes have allowed the city to balance all of its voting precincts in 2021 and 2022 elections, meaning the number of individuals who voted matches the number of ballots recorded at each precinct. Detroit is now a “shining start of election administration,” he said. 

Winfrey said it’s too late for the postal service to deliver absentee ballots through the mail on time. She encouraged people who still have their ballot to deliver it to a secure drop-box or their polling location on Election Day.

Winfrey said each drop box is being monitored by police and were equipped with devices that prevent fire. An Oregon man allegedly tried to set fires in drop boxes in two cities, destroying hundreds of ballots in October. 

“We are definitely prepared in the event that someone wants to do something like that,” Winfrey said. 

Thomas said early voting may have created more trust in the process from poll challengers who are tasked with observing the process and raising concerns about ballot issues. 

“Their people have been here for days, they’ve seen this is a big nothing,” Thomas said. “With the challengers who are here, they know nothing’s going on.”