Warren officials, others hope city doesn't hold up election night results

The city of Warren could find itself in the national spotlight — in a way it might not want to be — as a kerfuffle brews over the city clerk's decision not to preprocess absentee voter ballots and concerns about how quickly election results will get to Macomb County on election night.

The situation raised more eyebrows when City Clerk Sonja Buffa late last week asked for City Council to approve $140,000 to buy a high-speed scanner and tabulator — to add to the four the city already has — to expedite counting absentee ballots. The mayor's office sent a request to approve the funds to the City Council on Friday and a special council meeting was held Monday night.

Before the meeting, City Council Secretary Mindy Moore said Buffa decided instead to rent a scanner and tabulator for $40,000. The council didn't have a request to approve the rental and, in the end, simply received and filed the initial purchase request.

But not before asking questions and expressing concerns about Buffa's flip-flop on the scanner and tabulator and, more importantly, how quickly results would be reported to the county on Election Day, especially with the city clerk's office turning in results late to the county in the August primary.

Warren is the biggest city in Michigan not preprocessing absentee ballots, according to a list of such communities on the Michigan Secretary of State's website. It's the only large community in Macomb County not preprocessing ballots County Clerk Anthony Forlini said.

For years, clerks have lobbied Michigan lawmakers to amend the state's election law to give them more time to preprocess ballots before Election Day.

In the 2020 election, election workers in large cities could spend 10 hours the day before the election opening the envelopes containing the absentee ballots and checking that the number on the stub attached to the ballot matched the number on the envelope. In 2022, more communities were allowed to carry out those preprocessing steps the Sunday and Monday before Election Day.

A new law now allows more communities up to eight days before Election Day to not only preprocess absentee ballots but also tabulate them and every municipality to do the same the Monday before Election Day.

As of Wednesday, 27,664 absentee ballots were requested in Warren and 18,765 were returned, according to the Secretary of State's website.

"Michigan is a swing state. Sometimes, Macomb County has been pivotal in national elections. And we certainly don't want to be the people holding up getting the results," Moore said.

Her colleagues agreed, expressing concern about the reputation of the city, the state's third most populous. City Councilman Henry Newnan said the city "should not be holding up the election for the county, for the state, or, for the whole country."

Pollster Ed Sarpolus, founder and executive director of Lansing-based Target Insyght, said a delay in results out of Warren would be "significant," particularly for local and county races as well as Michigan's 10th Congressional District race between Republican U.S. Rep. John James and Democratic challenger Carl Marlinga, a former Macomb County judge and prosecutor.

In the August primary, for example, the Republican sheriff's primary winner won by 189 votes. Forlini said people want to know results sooner rather than later, especially in tight or hotly contested races.

City Council members urged Buffa to hire and train more workers ahead of Tuesday's election and to get results to the county faster. That could include using a program provided by the county clerk and sheriff where a sheriff's deputy and county clerk's employee will go to municipalities and pick up sticks with data — in a secure process — and transport the sticks to the county's election department in Mount Clemens. Expediting the data to the county means the county can post unofficial results online faster.

Buffa could not be reached Wednesday.

City Council members were critical of her not appearing for their meeting Monday, instead sending a top aide. Moore said Wednesday she had received no response from Buffa since Monday's meeting.

During a news conference Monday, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said she had hoped that Buffa would have decided to take advantage of the option to preprocess absentee ballots before Election Day, but said the decision was Buffa's to make.

In an Oct. 23 news release, Buffa stated accuracy was her top priority, followed by speed, and these were her reasons not to preprocess absentee ballots.

"First, it actually would take more time to pre-process absentee votes for eight days given the extra people needed, the time it takes, the storage necessitated, and the compiling afterwards, than one full day of counting," according to the release.

"Next, pre-processing is not mandated for clerks. The legislature could have easily mandated pre-processing, but they chose to make it optional. And finally, up to eight days of pre-processing opens the door for results to get leaked or compromised. I will not risk compromising the integrity of the election."

In a news release Monday about her decision to rent the extra scanner and tabulator, Buffa reiterated her position about prioritizing the one-day absentee ballot processing approach.

"We are prepared to deliver timely results without compromising on accuracy, and I have full confidence in my team's ability to uphold these standards," according to her statement. "Despite the scrutiny, I urge the public not to let it deter them from exercising their right to vote."

Benson said her office has been in contact with Buffa to offer support to efficiently tabulate ballots in the city.

"All that said, I think when it comes to election night, if there is one community that is lagging behind others and it's Warren, we'll be open about that, so that we make sure everyone knows exactly what's happening as we go through that process," Benson said.

Forlini said he believes Buffa has the ability to get the absentee ballots counted and results reported in a timely fashion. He, like others, however, was concerned because this is a big election with much scrutiny and preprocessing can help take some of the pressure off on Election Day.

He said Buffa waits on getting results to the county until all of the paperwork is done, the only community to do so. The paperwork, he said, can come in the next morning.

"Whatever she has at 10 o'clock, let's just get Warren off of zero, that's all I'm looking for," he said, referring to votes reported in.

Forlini said in the past, the sticks were ready before 9 p.m. in Warren, but were not turned in to the county until 1:30 a.m.

"We're willing to help any way we can, I've said that before. I don't want a rift. We don't need any of that. We don't need that diversion," Forlini said. "If the tools are there, I would hope everyone would use them and everybody really has, most everybody."

Staff writer Clara Hendrickson contributed to this report. Contact Christina Hall: [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Warren officials hope city doesn't hold up election night results