DETROIT (WWJ) — With Election Day less than a week away, election officials with the city of Detroit are laying out their expectations for the city’s turnout and when results will likely be announced.
Speaking at a Thursday morning press conference inside Huntington Place — where ballots will be counted after polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5 — Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said officials are expecting about 293,000 registered voters in the city to cast ballots, between early, in-person voting, absentee ballots and election day turnout.
That comes out to about 53% of the city’s registered voters, according to Winfrey, which would be about 3% higher than the turnout in the 2020 election, when Joe Biden carried Michigan with about 154,000 more votes than Donald Trump across the state.
Through Wednesday, about 22,000 voters have already cast ballots at the city’s 14 early voting centers, according to data from the Michigan Secretary of State’s voting dashboard. Winfrey said that number is expected to reach 35,000 by Sunday, the final day of the early voting period.
“That’s exciting for us, especially when you consider this is our first time early vote centers for a presidential election,” Winfrey said Thursday.
Winfrey said 110,000 absentee ballots have been issued and election officials are anticipating having 100,000 of them processed by Election Day.
“Because of that momentum,” Winfrey said officials are expecting nearly 150,000 Detroiters to cast their ballots at polling places across the city on Tuesday.
This close to the election, Winfrey and other elections officials across the country are encouraging those who still have their absentee ballots to no longer use the U.S. Postal Service, as they may not arrive in time through the mail at this point.
“I want to remind Detroiters with absentee ballots to please get those ballots out to us as soon as possible. Don’t use the USPS at this point. Instead, use one of our 34 drop boxes so we may receive your ballot in a timely fashion and we may process it for Election Day,” Winfrey said.
Winfrey said results are “expected to be posted around 9 p.m. and should be completed by midnight,” assuming the 8 p.m. mail delivery” doesn’t bring in an unusually high number of ballots.”
The clerk said their will be four result reporting expectations:
• Early vote results — approximately 35,000
• Around 90,000 to 100,000 pretabulated absentee ballots about 9 p.m.
• The remaining absentee ballots by about 11 p.m.
• Precinct results — approximately 150,000 ballots
As for safety measures at Huntington Place, Winfrey said the city is partnering with the Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police, the Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Justice and Huntington Place security personnel.
“We have established and maintained a comprehensive security plan throughout this week and 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.