After so much consternation, concern and confusion over the scale of absentee voting, it finally came time Tuesday night to wait for results in a historic primary that will all but elect a couple of members of Congress as well as set up the down-ballot contests for November's general election.
2020 Michigan primary election results:
Statewide races | Wayne County | Oakland County | Macomb County
But it could be well into Wednesday before anyone knows the actual outcome of many of the contests.
As of 5 a.m. nine hours after polls closed in most of Michigan, there still were few decisive results in most of the truly contested races across the state. In the only significant congressional race to be decided — for the Republican nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Justin Amash in a west Michigan seat — Peter Meijer, whose family founded the eponymous grocery store chain, was declared the winner by the Associated Press shortly before midnight.
"The time has come for a Republican Party that offers solutions based on conservative values like limited government, economic freedom, and individual liberty, to tackle issues in the present and the challenges sure to come," Meijer, an Iraq War veteran, said in a statement shortly after 11:30 p.m. "I’m honored by the support we have received tonight and look forward to a campaign through November that lives up to the legacy of the giants west Michigan has sent to Washington like President Gerald Ford, (U.S. Rep.) Paul Henry, and (U.S. Rep.) Vern Ehlers.”
In another key race, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, was leading Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones 66% to 34%, with 16% of precincts reporting.
Meanwhile, local clerks mostly seemed relieved that a day of processing a huge number of absentee ballots and handling a reduced turnout of in-person voters at the polls went well for the most part, even though the act of pulling together the tallies dragged well past midnight. In Wayne County, the state's largest county, as of 1 a.m., still less than 1% of the precincts were being reported on the county's website.
"I am extraordinarily pleased with how things went today," Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said at a news conference Tuesday evening, rating it a 9 out of 10. "It's been a great preview to underscore how ready we are for November," she added.
Depending on how long it takes to tally all the votes, she may have to reconsider that appraisal, as Michiganders — who cast an unprecedented 1.6 million absentee votes because of concerns over COVID-19 — waited to learn:
- Who has the upper hand to be the state's newest representative for the Republican-leaning 10th Congressional District covering northern Macomb County and the Thumb. With 80% of precincts reporting, state Rep. Shane Hernandez and businesswoman Lisa McClain were divided by a little more than 3,000 votes, with McClain leading Hernandez 40.8% to 37.8%. Former Selfridge Air National Guard Base commander Doug Slocum trailed them with 21% of the vote. The seat is open because U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Dryden, is stepping down.
- Who the Republicans will put up to face U.S. Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, and Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, in two congressional districts they'd like to win back after losing them two years ago in a Democratic wave. As of a.m., former prosecutor and Trump administration official Paul Junge, of Brighton, led a four-person field in the GOP primary to face Slotkin, with 35% of the vote, 6 percentage points ahead of his closest competitor, Mike Detmer of Howell, with 74% of the precincts counted. Birmingham lawyer Eric Esshaki had a 30%-24% lead on former fashion designer Carmelita Greco of Northville in the five-person Republican primary to face Stevens, with 49% of the precincts counted in that district. "It is early in the going, but the numbers are promising," Esshaki said.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, was leading Kalamazoo science teacher Jen Richardson in a close race for the Democratic nomination to face U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph. Hoadley led 52%-48% with 98% of the precincts reporting, The Associated Press reported.
Come back to Freep.com for updated totals.
In the 3rd Congressional District centered around Grand Rapids, Meijer's win took him a step closer to his goal of replacing Amash, a fierce critic of President Donald Trump's who abandoned the Republican Party last year and only finalized a decision not to run again as a Libertarian in recent weeks.
With 51% of precincts reporting, Meijer led the Republican primary with 50% of the vote to 26% for state Rep. Lynn Afendoulis, R-Grand Rapids,, and 16% for former Sand Lake Village President Tom Norton. Meijer will face lawyer Hillary Scholten in a Republican-leaning district Democrats hope to flip.
The big story of the election, however, remained how it was conducted amid the pandemic. And while overall foot traffic at polling places in Detroit and elsewhere seemed far lighter than past elections because of concerns over spreading the coronavirus and the effort state and local elections officials put into the absentee ballot drive, some still came out to make sure their voices were heard.
More: Did you vote in the August primary election? We want to hear from you
That included 24-year-old Gabrielle Smith and her fiance, 21-year-old Breanna Robinson, along with Robinson's 5-year-old daughter Brielle. Smith and Robinson voted at Detroit Fire Department Battalion 8 at John R and Seven Mile.
"We've got to make a difference, especially with the little baby," Smith said. "We've got to teach her we've always got to come out to vote."
Few problems reported during the day
While there were some concerns early on about polling places not opening or being moved at the last minute in Detroit because of the unavailability of some locations, throughout the day, Benson's office reported few problems.
Close to 1.6 million absentee ballots — out of close to 2.1 million requested — were cast, well more than the 1.3 million cast in the November 2018 election.
But most precincts were quiet. It was anyone's guess, however, whether that relative calm would continue as polls in all but three counties in the western Upper Peninsula closed at 8 p.m. and local clerks were left to try to process the ballots in a timely fashion.
Considering how late the count was taking Wednesday morning, it didn't appear that all was running as smoothly as some perhaps hoped. But neither were there many concerns raised of specific problems which were holding up the counts.
In a nod to actual transparency, election officials in Allen Park even installed Plexiglas around where they were doing the absentee ballot counting so people could — if they wanted to — watch.
Some clerks said they didn't expect to be done until Wednesday morning at the earliest. Other reports suggested some clerks had the handling of absentee ballots under control. Oakland County, for instance, had apparently all-but-concluded its counting of absentee ballots early Tuesday evening,.
Part of that was because of steps taken by local clerks — including Clerk Marne McGrath ofFerndale, which was one of 16 smaller cities to contract with the county clerk's office to help tally the results.
“The benefit for us is that Oakland County has high-speed letter openers, high-speed tabulators, a lot of the equipment that we don’t have as a smaller jurisdiction. So they can run through our ballots, process them faster,” McGrath said Tuesday afternoon.
Detroit facing huge number of absentee ballots, other challenges
In Detroit, City Clerk Janice Winfrey acknowledged an “abnormal” number of election employees not showing up for work Tuesday and polling place changes causing some frustration for voters, but she said absentee ballot counting was going very well as of early Tuesday evening.
Elections officials across the state were prohibited from beginning to tabulate mailed-in or dropped-off ballots until 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning and could only tally those received by the 8 p.m. close of polls.
“Our new high-speed tabulators seem to be doing the job. We expect to count somewhere between 70,000 and 75,000 ballots today,” Winfrey said at about 4 p.m.
With hundreds of people working from the TCF Center, she said they’d already counted more than 15,000 ballots by 1 p.m. and expected to be done counting by Wednesday. But that confidence could be tested with more than 104,000 absentee ballots having been requested in Detroit, more than any other municipality in the state.
Clerks say process working well despite numbers
Clerks across the state echoed Winfrey, saying the counting may take a little longer than normal but overall the process was working well.
“Right now, I don't anticipate being late at all. I mean it's still gonna happen tonight, no matter what, but at this time, we're good unless the machine breaks down or something like that,” Muskegon City Clerk Ann Meisch said Tuesday.
Clerks in Novi, Alpena and Shelby Township all anticipated their count being completed before midnight, according to an informal survey conducted by the Free Press in conjunction with Columbia Journalism Investigations at New York's Columbia University and the PBS series "Frontline."
But the counting was expected to last until Wednesday in Lansing, despite about 50 workers, high-speed letter openers and a tabulator that sucked in about one ballot page per second for counting. Although the city had counted about 5,000 ballots by 2 p.m., Clerk Chris Swope estimated that meant the counting would continue until midnight or 2 a.m., barring unforeseen problems.
Swope said looking ahead to November's general election “we’re in trouble” unless there is legislation to allow processing of the absentee ballots before Election Day, among other reforms. Turnout for presidential elections is always far higher than primary elections and with President Donald Trump facing former Vice President Joe Biden — in a state Trump shocked the nation by winning four years ago — turnout could be mammoth.
In-person voting marked by social distancing, masks
While some in-person voters expressed concerns about COVID-19, almost everyone was wearing masks and polling places had hand sanitizer available.
At polling places on Detroit's east side, a few campaign workers handed out literature, and most voters accepted it.
Roy Caldwell, 67, said he received an absentee ballot, but decided to vote in person instead at the gym at East English Village Preparatory Academy, where poll workers took voters' temperatures on the way in.
"I'm old school," Caldwell said. "I put on my mask and washed my hands."
"I'll probably come back — unless something flares up that's more than what we've got going on now," Caldwell said.
Ansariah Musafir, 38, also voted in the high school's gym.
"I just decided to come vote in person because I just feel more secure that way," she said, adding that she didn't want any "mail mishaps."
Several voters went to the polls even though they requested or received absentee ballots. In most cases, the ballots arrived at their homes so close to Election Day, though, they were worried their completed ballots would not arrive in time to be counted.
Detronia Watkins, 58, dropped her completed absentee ballot off at Wayne County Community College District's east side campus on Conner. She said it arrived three days ago. Her fiance, Wesley McGhee, 53, said his absentee ballot never arrived, so he planned to vote at his designated polling place after Watkins dropped off her ballot.
"You would think it would have come in time ..." he said of his absentee ballot, his fiance finishing the thought "... with COVID-19, everything's a mess."
Natisha Patterson, 43, dropped off her ballot, too. She said it arrived about a month ago, but she just lost track of time.
She said she plans to vote absentee again in November, however, because it gives her "a sense of safety."
"You don't have to be around other people," she said.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter. Free Press reporter Paul Egan, along with Columbia Journalism Investigations fellows Jackie Hajdenberg and Aseem Shukla, contributed to this report.
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