DETROIT – Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey is estimating upwards of 290,000 Detroiters will vote during the general election.
That translates to a 53% turnout, compared to 51% in 2020.
Absentee ballot counting began inside Hall A in Huntington Place on Monday (Oct. 28).
More than 100,000 absentee ballots are expected to be processed by Election Day.
“Our team is working three-day shifts across nine days, each totaling 750 people committed to this process. Since we began on Monday, we’ve already counted 37,600 absentee ballots right here,” Winfrey said.
There are 50 tables set up where votes are processed.
“One inspector will call off the ballot number on the actual ballot to compare it with the number that’s recorded on the ballot return envelope. If they agree, then they pass it to the final inspector who removes the stub and then places it inside of the tabulator for processing,” Detroit Elections Department Chief Operating Officer Daniel Baxter said.
On Election Night, the clerk’s office will produce the preliminary results from the tabulated ballots received before Nov. 5.
Then, they turn their focus to absentee ballots returned on Election Day.
“At 8 o’clock, we have to pick up another share of ballots all over the city. They have to be verified, and then they will be returned here to Huntington Place for tabulation,” Baxter said.
There is heightened security at Huntington Place during the vote counting.
“We’ve had conversations with the Detroit Police Department, the Department of Justice, and all other forms of law enforcement, and today, as we sit in this room, there are 10 police officers that are strategically located in the event that we have a disturbance, or someone violates or deviates from Michigan election law,” Baxter said.