Detroit — Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey revealed how many federal election monitors will be in the city next week while slamming the U.S. Department of Justice’s claims the city ran out of ballots in the 2024 election and saying there is no evidence that federal election monitors visited as many Detroit polling sites as it claims.
Winfrey was referring to a recent letter sent to the city from the U.S. Department of Justice in which the federal department said it “had some key points or key issues” with the city elections, including the 2024 election. President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice informed Michigan officials earlier this month it intends to send election monitors to Detroit, Lansing and East Lansing for the Aug. 4 primary.
Among the issues the Department of Justice has raised is that the city ran out of provisional ballots in the 2024 election. A provisional ballot refers to when election officials cannot immediately confirm a voter’s eligibility. Instead of turning the voter away, the ballot is set aside and reviewed later.
It also claimed federal election monitors visited 65 precincts in 2024. The federal department also raised the issue of “poll workers’ readiness and procedures,” Winfrey said.
The city has never run out of provisional ballots, and there is no record of federal election monitors visiting that many polling places in 2024, Winfrey said.
“What makes me suspicious is that you say things that you can’t back up,” Winfrey said during a Thursday press conference at the Wayne County Community College Northwest Campus ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections.
“We don’t have any proof that you were at any of our polling locations. When you say we ran out of provisional ballots, that lets me know you really don’t know because our provisionals are the regular ballots,” Winfrey said. “It’s never happened.
“The fact that they waited two years to tell me, you know, that this happened. Are you really … sincere about your efforts to ensure that our process is accurate?”
Election monitors who visit Detroit polling sites must sign in at the locations and be credentialed. Winfrey said there is no proof of federal election monitors visiting the 65 polling locations by signing in.
The Department of Justice will have a total of eight election monitors, in four teams of two, for the Aug. 4 primary in Detroit, the city’s clerk said.
The Department of Justice has already sought a complete copy of Michigan’s registered voter list and voting records from Wayne County, where Detroit is located. A federal judge rejected the request.
In 2021, a Republican-led state Senate committee released a report finding “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” in Michigan’s 2020 elections, when Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump. The Republican was reelected in 2024 over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, but overwhelmingly received fewer votes than Harris in the Democratic stronghold — something that has happened to GOP presidential candidates for decades.
In the primaries, Michigan voters will pick the Republican and Democratic nominees for governor, state Legislature and U.S. House and one U.S. Senate seat for the November general election.
laguilar@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Number of election monitors for Detroit revealed as Winfrey rebuffs DOJ
Reporting by Louis Aguilar, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Louis Aguilar, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
