Detroit officials expect high turnout, heightened security for 2024 presidential election

Detroit is heightening security for the November general election.

The city has a “rigorous security plan” in place for Nov. 5 and the days leading up to the election to prevent chaotic incidents like those that occurred in 2020 during vote counting after that presidential election. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey and Daniel Baxter, chief operations officer of the elections department, said security will be stepped up inside and outside Huntington Place in Detroit in the event of a disturbance or if anyone violates or deviates from Michigan election law.

"We expect and hope for the best, and we plan for the worst," Baxter said Thursday during a news conference at Huntington Place, where the city's votes are counted.

"We've had conversations with Detroit Police Department, the Department of Justice and all other forms of law enforcement,” Baxter said. “The perimeter of the area is covered. There are aerial views of Huntington Place to ensure that this operation maintains its safety throughout Election Day. We're very confident that we have a security program in place to ensure that every person in here feels safe and can do their job.”

Anyone entering the building must be credentialed and must undergo security checks, including for reentry.

Detroit's anticipated voting numbers

"In partnership with the Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police, Attorney General's Office, U.S. Department of Justice and Huntington place security, we have established and maintained a comprehensive security plan throughout this week in the days moving forward. This plan will continue through election night to ensure the safety of our election workers and the integrity of the election process," Winfrey said.

Detroit has 524,000 registered voters, of which Winfrey anticipates a 51-55% turnout.

“I'm excited to announce that already about 22,000 voters have cast their ballots at one of our 14 early vote centers, and by Sunday, we expect that nearly 35,000 Detroiters will have voted early,” Winfrey said.

More than 110,000 absentee ballots have been issued, Winfrey said, adding she anticipates counting about 100,000 ballots by Election Day.

“Because of the momentum that we're seeing now in early voting and absentee voting, we anticipate nearly 150,000 Detroiters to go to the polls and cast their ballots on Election Day,” Winfrey said. “We're poised to see upwards to 290,000 Detroiters voting in this election.”

Winfrey cited a change in legislation allowing early voting for the presidential election that she said sparked a cultural change for absentee voters.

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“We can now take advantage of 16 full days of early voters voting, and voters can now receive an absentee ballot for all elections held in Detroit by being placed on the permanent ballot list,” Winfrey said. "We have about 97,000 voters in Detroit on our permanent absentee ballot list."

The department received more than 81,000 ballots and counted 37,600 ballots since beginning the process on Monday.

“At this rate, by Election Day, we anticipate that the only ballots we’ll be processing here will be those absentee ballots received by mail and from our secure drop boxes throughout the city,” Winfrey said. The clerk suggested that residents who have yet to submit their ballots use one of 34 drop boxes across the city for faster results.

Amid concerns of fires set on drop boxes, as reported in multiple states, Winfrey said Detroit’s drop boxes have fire-suppressing devices inside each box, in addition to security monitoring them overnight.

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Results will be updated on the city and Wayne County election websites. Results are expected to be posted by 9 p.m. and completed by midnight, assuming the 8 p.m. mail delivery "doesn't bring an unusually high number of ballots," Winfrey said.

Questions loomed about whether Detroit hired enough Republican election workers amid a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee.

"Right now, we have a memorandum of understanding with the Republican Party to ensure that there's parity at our polling places. Today, we have one Republican representative at each one of our 50 counting boards. We have one poll worker at each one of our 14 early vote centers, and we are still working to ensure that we have one 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 go to the next level, which is to add additional poll workers here at the counting board, at the early vote center and at the precincts."

Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: [email protected]. Follow her: @DanaAfana.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit expects high voter turnout, more security for 2024 election