Detroit officials outline 'rigorous' security plan for Election Day, counting votes

Determined to avoid the "shenanigans" that embroiled Detroit while absentee votes were being counted during the tumultuous 2020 presidential election, city officials on Thursday outlined the "rigorous" security plan they've developed this year to keep workers safe and ensure every vote is counted.

Speaking to reporters in Huntington Place's spacious Hall A where Detroit's absentee ballots will be counted, City Clerk Janice Winfrey and her Director of Election Daniel Baxter said they consulted with Detroit police and the Department of Justice on developing a plan. Credentials will be required, metal detectors will be in place and the only people allowed in the space are poll workers, challengers, media and public observers.

"We're very confident that we have a security program in place to ensure that every person in here feels safe and can do their job," said Baxter.

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump, who lost Michigan by 150,000 votes, attempted to discredit the results by claiming there was widespread fraud at the then TCF Center. But the claims were never proven.

"It's because we're a Black city," Baxter said. "When you look at some of the attacks that have been made on communities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, those types of communities — that's where Black people live. That's where Black folk are administrators over the process, and that is why we get attacked so often."

Baxter said no one anticipated the "shenanigans" of the 2020 election. In the aftermath, he said a group of officials from the Department of Elections worked hard to review their process and make their process more efficient. They wanted to make Detroit the "shining star" of election administration.

"All we want to do, all we want to do in the city of Detroit and the Department of Elections, is make sure that every voter who has cast an absentee ballot, who has mailed it in and entrusted it into our hands —we want to make sure that we process it and make sure that their voice is heard in this election," Baxter said. "That's it. Nothing else."

He said working in Hall A of Huntington Place gives them more room. Police officers will also be in place throughout the convention center, including one on the roof, to make sure workers aren't threatened.

"We expect and hope for the best, but we plan for the worst," Baxter said.

Winfrey said protesters came to her home in 2020 and threatened her because they said she had something to do with Trump's loss. She now has routine security with her.

She said fraud claims have "never been proven. It has not been proven," Winfrey said. "...Why do they continuously do that? In my opinion, I think that they feel that they can bully us and get away with it, but not so, not so. We're going to continue to do our job at a high level of professionalism and to the letter of the law."