More than 2 million Michiganders mailed in ballots or voted in person for the primary election Tuesday, requiring many clerks to scramble for staff during a pandemic and spend late-night hours tallying a record number of absentee ballot.
Overall, clerks and voters echoed Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s statement that the primary went well. But the anticipated turnout was less than half the number expected to take part in November, when control of the presidency and Congress are at stake.
Problems arising this week in Detroit and elsewhere are harbingers of potential calamity if changes are not made before the general election, voting rights advocates said Wednesday. ..
Much of the concern centered on Detroit, with fears that the problems seen in the state’s largest city may became more pronounced throughout the state in the fall.
At least several polling places in Detroit did not open on time Tuesday morning because they did not have enough election workers. The Michigan Secretary of State’s office ended up sending 50 extra poll workers to the city, along with 30 additional people to Flint and other municipalities that needed help.
Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said coronavirus concerns — and not training or logistical problems — led to the “abnormal” number of workers no-showing on Election Day. Other clerks said they were able to open polling places but only with the bare minimum number of election workers.
As anticipated by Benson and others, results continued to trickle in Wednesday.
Winfrey warned a week before the election that Detroit needed an additional 900 poll workers. Edevbie and other advocates stressed the need to recruit more poll workers far in advance of the next election.