The polls are open in Michigan today. And by tonight, most of us will have done the thing we’re told is our civic duty, or we won’t have. In the last August primary, less than a quarter of Michigan voters turned out.

So here’s the question: if you voted this morning or you dropped your ballot off at a dropbox last week, have you done your part?

Eric Liu has spent years cultivating the answer to this question. He was a White House speechwriter for Bill Clinton and later Clinton’s deputy domestic policy adviser. He co-founded Citizen University in Seattle. It runs something called Civic Saturdays, a gathering built like a church service, with singing, and readings, and a sermon. 

His forthcoming book is “Live Like a Citizen: 8 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Our Country”. He joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss what it means to be a good citizen after the voting booth closes.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.

More stories from The Metro

Police say a 5-year-old boy was shot in the arm while riding his bicycle in front of his home in northwest Detroit. Investigators say a teenager fired several shots near Fargo-Oakfield Park when a stray bullet hit the boy.

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield says the young victim will recover. She called the shooting senseless gun violence and said children deserve to feel safe in their neighborhoods. She says anyone with information about the shooter should call the police or CrimeStoppers. 

-Reporting by Pat Batcheller

Additional headlines for Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Federal monitors in Detroit?

The Justice Department plans to send election monitors to Detroit, Lansing and East Lansing for Michigan’s August primaries. Those are mostly Democratic cities. President Trump has falsely claimed that fraud in Detroit cost him the 2020 election.

Phil Mayor is the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. He says the DOJ can, and has, used election monitors before. But he says Trump’s plan is troubling.  

“Given this administration’s election denialism and many of the other ways the administration has sought to discourage voting or spread false narratives, we’re certainly concerned. We’ll be watching the conduct of DOJ’s monitors carefully to ensure that they comply with the law, that they don’t interact with or harass voters.”

The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party—and a 2020 election denier—suggested this could be a trial run for placing federal agents at the polls in November. 

Faith leaders in the state are calling on legislators to pass a Michigan Voting Rights Act to fight against discrimination and protect access at the polls. 

-Reporting by Rick Pluta and Sascha Raiyn

Faith leader training

A new training is available for people who’d like to be Poll Chaplains or Peacekeepers at polling locations. 

Poll Chaplains are faith leaders who wear clerical attire at election sites and peacekeepers are religious community leaders. The training teaches both how to maintain peace and de-escalate potential conflict at polling locations to encourage voter participation.  

Faiths United to Save Democracy is a nonpartisan, multifaith and multiracial voter protection campaign.  

The training will be held on Zoom on Monday July 13 from 7-8:30 p.m. Additional training will be offered on September 28 and October 15. People will receive official credentials upon completion of training.  

People can register at turnoutsunday.com. 

Fresh food truck

Wayne County has launched a food truck to increase access to affordable, healthy food options for residents. The Well Wayne Fresh Truck Mobile Market is a “farmers market on wheels.”  

It’s an effort to feed people who are facing food insecurity. That’s 1 in 5 people in the county. 

The food truck is also a way to reduce barriers to accessing food due to limited transportation and food prices. The food truck is sponsored by a multi-million-dollar investment to address social determinants of health through community work. The mobile food truck accepts SNAP, EBT, Double Up Food Bucks, cash, and credit or debit cards. It will operate across several cities including in Highland Park, Hamtramck and Inkster. Routes will be updated quarterly and based on community feedback.    

Grow Talent program starts

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield kicks off the city’s summer jobs program for young people today. Grow Detroit’s Young Talent provides paid positions for about 8,000 teens and young adults. This year the city is adding two weeks of training for each participant in which they’ll learn about professionalism, conflict resolution and other skills.  

-Reporting by Pat Batcheller 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

President Trump continues to argue, without evidence, that voting by mail is plagued by fraud, even though he often casts ballots that way himself.

But the president has hit some judicial roadblocks in his efforts to curtail voting by mail.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state’s right to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, if they arrive within a certain grace period.

Last week, a federal judge blocked President Trump’s plan to forbid the U.S. Postal Service from delivering mail-in ballots to states that refused to provide a list of absentee voters.

Michigan U.S. Sen. Gary Peters is the ranking member of the congressional committee that oversees the Postal Service.

Peters says he welcomes the court decisions, but he still has a few concerns.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Gary Peters: The caution to all of this is twofold. One, of course, is that the Trump administration will likely appeal this decision. And two, the court decision affected 23 states that filed suit. Michigan was one of those states, so that can’t occur here in Michigan. But that still leaves it open for all of the remaining states in the Union. So, it is simply unacceptable.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You’re the ranking member on the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the Postal Service. At a recent hearing with the committee, the Postmaster General was arguing the President’s executive order would “match the ballots that a state believes they’re sending out to what actually gets sent out.” What is your response to that statement?

GP: It was ridiculous. I asked him very directly, “Under this executive order as the Postmaster General, does this mean if a state does not provide that voter information to you that you will not mail the ballots there?” And he said that is correct. “We will not mail any ballots unless that information is provided.” So clearly it’s blackmailing states that they want to provide that information.

And then his response was, “Well, states want to know that these ballots are getting mailed out.” That’s ridiculous. Because right now everybody believes that when you drop a letter into the post office box with an address you believe it’s actually gonna be mailed out. Do you need to provide a bunch of personal information before the post office actually delivers it to someone? That’s not the way the process works.

The post office has one job: Take a letter that’s dropped in a mailbox that’s addressed to somebody and then deliver it on a timely basis. And that’s how ballots should be handled as well. The clerks know who they are mailing those ballots to. They would assume, like every American, that the Postal Service will actually deliver them and then deliver them back to the clerk. So those arguments do not hold any water.

QK: You argued during that hearing that if this all went through, the Postal Service in many ways would actually be running elections. Because they would decide who should get a ballot or not.

GP: Absolutely. The U.S. Constitution is very clear that states run elections, not the federal government. The Trump administration is trying to do everything they can to take over elections at the federal level, which is unconstitutional.

We’re confident courts will continue to rule that it’s up to local communities and states, ultimately, to control elections. And yet the Trump administration is now trying to use the Postal Service to require that information be provided to the federal government before they actually will mail ballots. That gives the Postal Service tremendous power.

And when you have this voter information available to the federal government, who knows what it could be used for? We have indications that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was making inquiries as to how could they access this data that was going to be provided to the Postal Service. That could be used for potentially nefarious purposes. It’s simply unacceptable. We have to maintain the integrity of states to run their own election and not allow the federal government to attempt to do something that is clearly unconstitutional.

QK: Is there anything you see that could be done on a congressional level to argue against this order if by some chance it’s reinstated?

GP: The Constitution’s clear. If we have to pass specific legislation, we can look at doing that as well. Certainly, this court ruling is encouraging. But, again, it only applies to the 23 states that actually filed suit against the executive order. We’ll be looking at how we can make sure that applies to all 50 states.

President Donald Trump and Republicans want to transform the election process.

Recently, the president signed an executive order that seeks to change how mail-in voting works, placing it under the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Trump and Republicans are also trying to pass the SAVE Act, which would ensure voters provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting.

All of this is happening as the president has called to “nationalize the elections,” and as MAGA influencer Steve Bannon has asked ICE officials to patrol polling locations in November. 

What should we make of all these efforts? How secure are voting systems? 

Republican Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro