City of Detroit Clerk Janice Winfrey gives election update

free bus rides all day today. If transportation is a concern of yours, please remember that Detroit Department of Transportation buses are free all day election day. They are one of our partners, and we really appreciate them. All you have to do is board the bus and let the driver know you're traveling to vote, and you can enjoy your free bus ride all day long today. Ballot collection and counting will continue throughout the day, including ballots received through our final 8 o'clock p.m. collection from all of our 38 official drop boxes. The U.S. Postal Service and the city clerk's office, Department of Elections, will all continue until eligible ballots have been tabulated. We will continue to receive those ballots from those entities. We expect to begin reporting results by 8.30, between 8.30 and 9 o'clock tonight. I'm going to say that again. We expect to begin reporting results between 8.30 and 9 o'clock p.m. with results representing about 90 to 95 percent of all ballots cast in Detroit by 11 o'clock p.m. We anticipate receiving about 8,000 to 12,000 absentee ballots on today. Our goal is to report these results by 4 o'clock a.m. Wednesday. Again, those are the ballots that we received, the absentees that we received today. There will be 26 U.S. Department of Justice monitors, teams of two, will be present in our precincts today. We also expect congressional monitors in our city as well. Our focus remains on providing an orderly voting experience. Free of barriers and ensuring that every eligible ballot is counted accurately. Remember, democracy is strongest when people participate and we encourage every eligible voter to take themselves to their polls and make their voices heard. Thank you so much. Have a great election day. Are you taking questions? I'll take a few. Just expectations for today for you. I think this midterm, as we know, has set the stage not just for the state but national-wise. Are you expecting more of a vote-out than usual? Yeah, our numbers are already hearty for midterm, and we're excited about that. We are. I know that you're really good about checking in with all of the polling places to make sure everything is going well. I just wonder, this morning, were there a number of lines at polling places? I know at this one in particular, there are about 20 people who filed in when those polls opened. I just wonder what it was like at this one. Yeah, that's pretty typical. I mean, that's not an extra long line. This is one of our very busiest precincts, and that's why I'm here today, this morning. You know, usually there's a line of voters to get in. People like to get to take care of it before they get to work. But this early, you know, 20 is, it's okay. It's not exceptionally long. Every election is always important, but this one is such a high profile race, specifically the Senate race. Was there anything extra that went into the preparation of these polling places just to get ready for this, or security-wise even? You know what? We do this for every election, every time. Because for us, every election is so important. It's equally important. So we take the same measures. We make sure we have all the security in place. We make sure that we have all the equipment tested. It's just, for us, it's standard operating procedures. Every election is important. You're welcome. How long do you anticipate trucks with ballots coming into Huntington Place? I know that was something that's been a concern in years past, and people have questioned about that. Well, this is the chief operating officer for absentee voting, so that's a question for Dan. Yeah. I've been working for the Department of Elections since 1985. My first job was the Political Organizations Coordinator at Huntington Place, then Cobo Hall. My responsibility was to deal with the various challenges and observers that come into Cobo Hall to witness democracy as it is working. So since that time, there has always been efforts whereby when ballots come in at the at the Department of Elections. They come into the department, they're tabulated, I'm sorry, they're verified, they're processed, they're sorted and placed in order, and then they're delivered to Huntington Place. That has never changed. That has been consistent over the years, and that's what we expect today. The number of ballots that we anticipate, as the clerk said, is 8,000 to 12,000. Thank you very much. They'll come in spurts. We have roughly about 1,800 that will come in at 12 o'clock. Shortly thereafter, there's about 3,500 additional ballots coming in, so that's the second time. That'll be around 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock. Then later on in the day, we'll get an additional 2,000 ballots, and then we'll be waiting on what comes in the mail, the early vote centers, not the early vote centers, but the drop boxes, the clerk's office, and the post office. So as they come in, they go to the Department of Elections. They're processed, signatures are verified, and once all of that's done, they're sorted and delivered to Huntington Place. We anticipate that to go on throughout the day, and there'll probably be about five deliveries at Huntington Place. Because they're large volumes, there's 50 trays, we have to use trucks to bring them in. Thank you. Hopefully, at 8 o'clock, we only get less than 100. And we can drive those vehicles into Huntington Place in a Pinto. And if that's the case, we're going to have an early night and we're going to have early reports. Thank you guys so much. We will see you again at 1130.