Scrutiny looms over the Great Lakes State ahead of Election Day as Michigan could determine who will be the next president.
Read: Here’s when polls open for the 2024 presidential election
In the final stretch, Warren City Clerk Sonja Buffa and her team are in overdrive.
“We had over 2,000 – I think, it was 2,092 voters – it was the highest in the entire state of Michigan at one early voting site [on Sunday],” Buffa said.
Early numbers show roughly 21,000 absentee ballots have been returned so far, according to the city clerk.
The day before election day, people took advantage of in-person absentee voting.
“It’s a big election this year,” said Shanna Brocks, a voter. “I want to make sure we get the right person in office.”
There are the candidates and issues on the ballot, but for some voters, election integrity is just as important.
Recently, the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced it plans to send election monitors to multiple states including Michigan.
The department selected six cities in the state to visit such as Warren.
Bruce Adelson spent six years with the department as an election monitor. He said the monitoring is merely supportive not an overhaul of the election process.
“To work with local election officials to make sure the elections run smoothly and if there is an issue to be able to respond on the ground immediately,” Adelson said.
How does the department determine which cities to monitor?
Sometimes, officials get complaints from elected officials, community leaders or voters, Adelson said.
In other cases, there may have been previous issues as in the case of the former TCF Center in Detroit during the 2020 election.
There are times when election monitors will be on standby to make sure no issues ever arise.
According to Adelson, DOJ plans to partner with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He further explained how the justice department sometimes files a lawsuit on Election Day to make sure people are not being turned away
Some voters welcome the idea.
“I want a fair election regardless of who wins,” said Doug Kalinowski, a voter.
Unlike other cities, Warren plans to tabulate their absentee ballots on election day which drew some fierce criticism.
Buffa says she’s not worried as this will mark her fifth election this year.
“No one is doing anything wrong,” she said. “They’re just there to observe the process and I welcome that.”
