Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey and elections officer Daniel Baxter. Photo: Samuel Robinson
Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey told reporters at a press conference Thursday the city elections department expects 65,000 to 90,000 voters to participate in the upcoming primary election Tuesday, Aug. 5.
Winfrey said 40,000 absentee ballots have been returned so far. They started counting the ballots at Huntington Place Thursday morning and expect to count between 55,000 and 60,000 absentee ballots by Tuesday, the night of the election.
As for early voting, 902 voters have voted early at one of the eight early voting centers, Winfrey said.
In the most recent municipal election in 2021, about 5% of registered voters voted at the polls on Election Day.
“If that trend continues, we expect around 25,000 people to vote on Tuesday, Aug. 5,” Winfrey said. “This along with absentee ballots cast will give us a total voter turnout between 13-18%. We’re hoping for better. As always, we’re hoping more Detroiters will get involved and vote so we can hear from them.”
Winfrey said the city elections department has trained nearly 5,000 people for this election.
Winfrey, who is running unopposed for the first time, noted the number of candidates is less than years past. Several districts are without candidates for Board of Police Commissioner and Community Advisory Council.
“The ballot is super, super small. Not only are they not voting, but they don’t even want to participate in the process as to be a candidate anymore,” Winfrey said. “It’s really sad… People aren’t interested and it’s so hurtful. We’re going to continue, and we’re going to do everything we know we can to engage our citizens to be candidates and to vote because it really does matter. Hopefully, they’ll see with this very local election how important it is and how it directly impacts their lives.”
Daniel Baxter, the chief operations officer at the elections department, told reporters that the next four years, “Are going to be a very dry season for the city of Detroit and other urban communities.”
“It’s going to take people that can get us through those four years to understand that relationships are important, that bringing money into Detroit to continue the development and the building and all of the great work that’s being done right now,” Baxter said. “Those people have to have that type of ability and talent in order to continue that. When you deal with what you see in Washington D.C., it’s going to be a hard shift to tow — it’s not as attractive now to those people who would typically run in those positions, some are saying, ‘Maybe I’ll run four years from now.”
Winfrey also mentioned that there have also been some precinct changes. Since the presidential election in November, 2024, 11 polling locations have changed, and all voters affected by these changes have been sent new voter registration cards.
About 44,000 votres in 35 precincts were affected by changes to city council districts as a result of the redistricting process that took place last year. These voters were mailed new voter registration cards with updated council district information.
Winfrey also mentioned there was a last minute polling change location at a church due to plumbing issues reported this week. The new polling place to replace it is New Providence Baptist Church at 18211 Plymouth Rd. The precinct number for that polling place is 361 and 362.
Detroit has 400 precincts and 159 polling locations. Most of the polling equipment has already been delivered to their respective polling places, Winfrey said.
“We are fully ready to run a smooth election,” she said.
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