Detroit Voter Turnout Not Expected To Top 18 Percent
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Voter turnout of 13 percent to 18 percent is expected for Detroit's municipal election which will decide the mayoral, City Council and clerk races.
Elections officials say Thursday that about 38,000 of the city's 470,000 registered voters are expected at the polls Tuesday. Another 30,000 absentee ballots are expected to be turned in.
Incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan is being challenged by state Sen. Coleman Young II. Clerk Janice Winfrey is being challenged by Garlin Gilchrist II.
Winfrey says Detroit will have about 3,000 poll workers on Tuesday who have received personalized, "hands-on training" to help fix problems from the November 2016 general election.
"Many, many, many people don't like to read, so we found that we need to start teaching to the student, and not necessarily just a rote style of learning," Winfrey told WWJ's Sandra McNeill. "So we incorporated lots of hands-on...and they like it! The poll workers like it. We're getting good feedback, and they're doing well with it."
On Thursday, Winfrey said she was already setting up the voting machines at polling precincts.
"On Election Day the poll workers can just turn on the equipment, swear themselves in and actually begin procession right away," she said.
A state investigation earlier this year found that widespread human error caused mismatches between the number of ballots cast last November in some Detroit precincts and the number of voters. Over a third of precincts in Detroit reported more votes than voters.
© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
