LIVE RESULTS: Detroit | Wayne County
Voter turnout in Detroit is expected to fall between 40-45% once every ballot is counted and there were no issues with government interference at the polls, according to Department of Elections Chief Daniel Baxter.
Baxter spoke during a press conference from the Central Counting Board at Huntington Place Tuesday shortly after 8:30 p.m., outlining the tabulation process and what observers are going to see.
He said the anticipated turnout is on par with what Detroit would typically see for midterm gubernatorial race.
So far, the voting totals are as follows:
- 25,500 Detroiters voted early at in-person locations between Oct. 24 and Nov. 2.
- 110,000 Detroiters who voted on Election Day at 502 precincts across the city.
- 68,000 Detroiters submitted absentee ballots
The city expects to post its first results by 9:30 p.m., with a goal of having 90-95% of results reported by 11 p.m., Baxter said.
As he was speaking, Baxter said he expected the largest shipment of the night of ballots, with 1,300, on what he described as “the big truck” to be in at any time. The final delivery will come in later.
As for concerns that poll watchers from the Department of Justice could interfere with elections, Baxter said “absolutely not.”
“There were 13 teams, 2 people per team, 26 folks, and then we had representatives from the US Congress who were here to observe the operation, as well. Is that unique, absolutely not,” he said. “In the 2024 election, we had some people here from Congress. In 2024, we had the representatives from the Department of Justice. We did not have as many back in 2024 or in previous elections.”
Baxter added: Every voter in the city of Detroit had an opportunity to cast their ballot without being impacted by their presence.
8 p.m.
Polls have now closed in Detroit. The attention now shifts to Huntington Place, where the vote count will take place. BridgeDetroit is on the scene and will bring you updates.
For now, stay with us for results as they come in:
- Michigan US Senate election results: Abdul El-Sayed vs Mike Rogers
- Detroit voters to elect new school board majority in consequential election
- Michigan governor’s race election results: Jocelyn Benson vs. John James
- Michigan secretary of state race: Garlin Gilchrist faces Anthony Forlini
- Michigan election results: Governor, Senate, US House, proposals, more
- Michigan attorney general election: Doug Lloyd faces Eli Savit
- Michigan elections: Voters decide makeup of Michigan Supreme Court
- Michigan elections: Voters make picks for State Board of Eduction, university boards
- Michigan elections: Voters decide on Proposal 2 Money Out of Politics question
- Michigan elections: Voters decide Proposal 1 constitutional convention measure
3:45 p.m. — Tuesday, Nov. 3
Detroit voters on Tuesday will decide a new majority for the city’s public school board, in races that will shape the district’s future.
While many at the polls said that they want to see strong board representation for the city’s schoolchildren, most said they were unsure who to vote for.
Katherine Jackson, a 72-year-old retiree, cast her vote at Detroit Lions Academy on the city’s west side Tuesday afternoon.
She said she was eager to support Democrats. But when it came to the races for the Detroit Public Schools Community District – which her grandchildren attend – she said she’s not as informed on the board candidates as she hoped she could have been.
“I really wish there was someone or something to help me so I just voted for the names I recognized,” she told BridgeDetroit.
Detroiters will vote to fill five open at-large seats on the DPSCD’s seven-member board, including four seats with full four-year terms and one with a two-year partial term.
Adrian Christianson, 21, a young voter in the city’s Warrendale neighborhood, turned up to cast his ballot at Carver STEM Academy Tuesday, citing concerns over the economy and federal immigration enforcement.
The Wayne State University student said the school board race was also important to him. As an education major, he believes students deserve a quality education and that teachers deserve more support.
“As trivial as some people might see it, I think it’s very big because the kids are the future,” said Christianson, who did not disclose his selections for the board.
BridgeDetroit asked several other voters at the polls Tuesday what they thought about the DPSCD school board race. Many said they were not familiar and had little knowledge of the candidates.
Terrence Barker, who voted at St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center, said he also wasn’t familiar with the candidates for the DPSCD school board but more funding needs to go to the district, citing things like schools not having air conditioning.
“Where is the money going?” He said. “It’s definitely not hitting the inner city.”
Elizabeth Gist, 40, voted at Detroit Unity Temple near Palmer Park. Gist said she believes in voting but is ambivalent about its impact at the same time, given promises that end up broken by candidates once they reach office. It’s hard to know who can be trusted, even harder in the age of AI, she said when “I don’t know who wrote these responses,” on campaign websites.
Gist said above the statewide and national races on the ballot, she cared most about local issues, including electing DPSCD board members.
She said she spent a lot of time researching since she hadn’t heard much from any campaign, and selected about seven school board candidates she planned to vote for.
She hopes they can improve Detroit’s educational system and its children’s outcomes.
“Children are the future…and I’m concerned. Because critical thinking seems to be a lost art. Even basic phonics, reading, arithmetic,” Gist said.
Blind Detroit voter casts ballot independently amid accessibility concerns
2:15 p.m. — Tuesday, Nov. 3
Stephen Handschu shared frustrations ahead of the midterm election about unreliable equipment that often kept Detroiters with disabilities from voting independently at the polls.
On Tuesday, the 79-year-old blind Detroiter was able to successfully cast his ballot on a Voter Assist Terminal (VAT) at Central United Methodist Church.
“No one should take for granted the right to vote to begin with, and the right to vote secretly,” said Handschu, an artist and representative for Detroit Advocates of the Blind. “Those are pretty important rights of citizenship. And what can I say? I wish we didn’t have to fuss so long to get here, but I’m delighted we got here. And at least today for me, the system did work.”
Handschu’s voting experience comes after he and others appealed to Detroit’s City Council about struggles at the polls often endured by the disabled community, including what they have said is a lack of training for VAT setup and use that sometimes resulted in an hourslong ordeal or prevented Detroiters with disabilities from being able to vote without assistance.
“At least today for me, the system did work,” he told BridgeDetroit after casting his ballot.
Handschu walked from his home on the other side of Grand Circus Park and up to the fourth floor of the church Tuesday, he said, because he had to fill out extra paperwork to vote in-person since he’d first submitted an absentee ballot and had to void that submission.
The ballot was long, he said, and using the VAT was “cumbersome,” he told BridgeDetroit.
“The voting process took nearly two hours I believe for me, which I think is excessive,” he said. “But having said those little minor things, the machine worked this time, and I’m very very happy that it worked. And, I got to vote secretly and independently.”
The clerk’s office has faced accessibility questions ahead of the 2025 city election, in 2024 and in 2022. The nonprofit advocacy group Detroit Disability Power has conducted multiple surveys of polling sites. Last year, the group found there were widespread barriers to accessibility, including entrances and doorways, with 70% of the individuals surveyed reporting problems with VATs.
The Detroit Department of Elections previously told BridgeDetroit there is a Voter Assistance Terminal at all of the city’s 158 polling locations. There are also additional machines in reserve that can be used as needed.
The department added that complaints about VATs aren’t made often. But when they are received, a team is quickly dispatched to the polling site to rectify it. The team either resolves the issue with the machine or replaces it with one of the department’s VAT reserves.
Handschu said in the past there have been multiple roadblocks, including nonfunctioning machines, missing earphones and volume issues. But today, those problems were there.
“I don’t want to say everything’s fine for everybody because I’m just one person and I only have my experience,” he said. “But … I got to cast my vote secretly, and that’s what I was looking for.”
12:15 p.m. — Tuesday, Nov. 3
Southwest Detroit voters at the polls voiced concern over financial hardship and rising costs as they shared their hopes that the Nov. 3 election could signal a shift in policy change.
Within the groups of people at Mayberry Elementary casting their votes was brother and sister duo Henry McCoi and Cynthia Linger.
McCoi, an 80-year-old retiree, said even though Republican President Donald Trump is not on the midterm ballot, Trump was his primary motivation to cast his vote for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson.
“I voted to go against Trump. When it all comes down to it, we are trying to vote against Trump,” McCoi said.
McCoi said that the state of the economy under Trump’s second administration has made it so he cannot afford his costs of living on his Social Security benefits alone.
“I have to limit myself, cut different areas like my gasoline or my electricity or my water or my phone, just to survive,” McCoi said.
For Linger, 88, casting her straight Democratic ticket in person on Tuesday was a matter of principle.
“As an American citizen I wanted to vote for the people I feel will do much more for Michigan,” Linger said. “My right to vote is my right to speak for what I want and what I expect.”
Nichelle Williams, a southwest Detroit home healthcare worker, said it was crucial to cast her vote at Mayberry Elementary on Tuesday for Democratic candidates that she hopes can slow federal cuts to food assistance programs.
“We need a change in the economy and direction things are going,” Williams said. “People can’t afford to live day to day and they just keep taking away food stamps.”
Williams, 33, has a freshman daughter at University Preparatory Academy, and said that while she wasn’t familiar with the dozens of candidates for the board of the Detroit Public Schools Community District she feels it is time to “shake things up.”
She cited the district’s long-running struggles with literacy rates.
A $94.4 million settlement gave DPSCD the resources it needed to hire hundreds of academic interventionists to work with struggling students. Other strategies included reducing class sizes in early grades, tutoring, and merit pay for teachers whose schools or classrooms reached ambitious literacy goals. Steady improvement on state exams have followed those interventions. But the settlement money will run out after this school year, and the new DPSCD board members will help decide how the district responds.
“They need a change when it comes to reading, a lot of students are really far behind where they have to be and can’t read,” Williams said. “Then they turn into adults who can’t read…something has to change.”
10:05 a.m. — Tuesday, Nov. 3
Election monitors to visit 8 Michigan cities as part of largest monitoring effort in DOJ history
Detroit is among eight Michigan cities where federal election monitors and observers are being deployed for today’s general election.
The US Department of Justice, in a Nov. 3 news release, noted that the city, along with Lansing, E. Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint, Hamtramck, Warren and Dearborn, will see DOJ monitors.
The DOJ said it would deploy approximately 1,000 election monitors and observers in all 50 states for the first time in history to check for compliance with federal voting rights statutes.
“Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this Administration and this Division,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, said in a statement. “I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”
On Thursday, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey reiterated that the DOJ planned to send federal monitors to polling places in Detroit, as it did for the August primary.
Federal monitors have been present in Michigan for several past federal elections, according to the state. However, like any other poll watcher, DOJ monitors cannot speak with voters, touch election equipment or ballots, or interfere with the administration of the election.
Winfrey has said she feels confident this election will run “as smoothly and safely as previous elections.
“We’re ready, and we want you to know that we administer secure, accessible and accurate elections, and we need you to participate,” Winfrey said during a Thursday news conference.
Winfrey had said that the DOJ would provide the city the number of monitors it planned to send by Oct. 30. She and other city election officials said they do not expect to run into security issues at polls. It wasn’t immediately clear on Nov. 3 where the monitors were deployed in the city.
Voters today will decide a new Michigan governor, state house, senate and US congressional district seats as well as secretary of state. There are also statewide proposals and regional millages involving schools, cultural institutions and The Detroit Zoo. In Detroit, voters will weigh in on two separate races for Detroit Public Schools Community District.
Detroit has about 532,000 registered voters. During the city’s nine days of early voting, 25,515 ballots were cast and as of 4 p.m. Monday, 68,000 absentee ballots had been processed, said Matt Friedman, a spokesman for Detroit Votes.
On Thursday, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said that the city anticipates a 40-45% turnout for the general election. The projection compares with a 34% turnout in the 2022 midterm election, according to Daniel Baxter, chief of operations for the city’s elections department.
Morning crowd weighs in
A steady stream of people flowed in and out of the St. Suzanne Cody Rouge Community Resource Center in Detroit’s Franklin Park neighborhood just after the polls opened on Tuesday.
Among the voters casting a ballot before heading off work was Brandan Duncan, who was voter #6 at the polling location. The Warrendale resident said he voted for gubernatorial Republican nominee John James because he’s a “brother of business.”
“He understands economics; he gets the bigger picture,” Duncan said. “He understands the game at play.”
The 44-year-old nurse’s aide for a psychiatric facility said he’s supporting the Republican Party, including US Senate candidate Mike Rogers. Duncan believes the Democratic Party has taken the Black community for granted.
“A lot of times they don’t even come to the neighborhood anymore and try to recruit us because they’re like, ‘We already got you,’” he said. “When the other party tried to step in and say, ‘Hey, we’re willing to talk to you all,’ we weren’t even willing to hear what they had to say.”
Meanwhile, fellow Warrendale resident Roberta Key, 53, voted for all the Democratic candidates, including James’ opponent Jocelyn Benson and US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
“I don’t really know too much about her,” Key said about Benson. “I just voted straight Democrat.”
Key, who works in home health care, said the economy has been a concern for her as she works to take care of her teenage son. She hopes Michigan’s next governor can help bring down gas prices and the cost of groceries.
“I also want them to work on health insurance and the cost of living,” Key said.
Terrence Barker, 52, made his way over to St. Suzanne before heading to work as a vehicle rail loader. The Warrendale resident said he votes in every election, recognizing the importance of exercising his right after the Black community fought to vote during the 1950s and 1960s.
“I don’t take it lightly. I teach my kids the same thing,” Barker said. “If you don’t do nothing, you go out there and vote. Our people died trying to do that, and when we got the opportunity to do it (vote), some people just take it as another day and be complaining when things don’t go their way.”
Barker voted for Benson, citing her experience as the Michigan Secretary of State. He also voted for El-Sayed. Barker said he didn’t appreciate the bombardment of commercials on TV and messages sent to his phone attacking El-Sayed.
“We’re not talking about what needs to be done,” he said. “It’s all about his race. And there’s a lot of people that might go for that because it’s a scary time. There were a lot of things that got misconstrued. That’s why I voted for him.”
7 a.m. — Tuesday, Nov. 3
Heading out to vote? The polls are open. Here’s more to know.
It’s Election Day, Detroit!. If you haven’t voted absentee or cast a ballot at a designated early voting site, chances are you are heading out today.
Here’s a few tips to remember as you head to the polls:
- If you are registered to vote, you must vote at your assigned polling place.
- The polls are open until 8 p.m. If you are in line by 8 p.m. at your assigned polling site, you will be able to vote, so stay in line.
- You can find your polling place online at the Michigan Voter Information Center or by calling the Detroit City Clerk at (313) 224-3270.
Voters will decide a new Michigan governor, state house, senate and US congressional district seats as well as secretary of state. There are also statewide proposals and regional millages involving schools, cultural institutions and The Detroit Zoo. In Detroit, voters will weigh in on two separate races for Detroit Public Schools Community District.
- More questions? Check out BridgeDetroit’s comprehensive voter guide here.
- Find all you need to know about the DPSCD candidates here.
- Need a ride? Here are some Election Day options.
- A refresher on your rights as a voter, can be found here.
If you encounter any challenges or have feedback from your voting experience, reach out to us at bridgedetroit@bridgedetroit.com.
Check back for team updates throughout the day.
Detroit Free Pres reporter Beki San Martin contributed.
