Those planning to vote in-person during the general election this fall may be presented with a unique variety of “I Voted” sticker designs created by Michiganders.

The Michigan Department of State announced Wednesday it has selected nine winning designs from the state’s first ever “I Voted” sticker design contest, which will be made available for clerks to hand out to voters at the polls on Nov. 5.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson congratulated contest winners in a news release issued Wednesday, adding that she was “overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and creativity from the people of our great state.”

“Now,” she says, “let’s use the same energy in casting a vote this November. I encourage every eligible voter to make a plan now to have your voice heard – vote with an absentee ballot, at an early voting site, or on Election Day – and feel proud to wear a sticker designed by a fellow Michigander.” 

More than 480 designs were submitted during the contest, which launched in May, and over 57,700 public votes were cast for the winners, according to the state.

Three winning designs were selected from three separate categories: elementary/middle school (grades K-8), high school (grades 9-12), and general entry — open to Michigan residents of all ages.

Submissions received were narrowed down to 25 semifinalists from each category by the Michigan Collegiate Student Advisory Task Force before the contest opened up for a public vote.  

Check out the winning designs from each category in the photo gallery below.

For more information about voting and elections in Michigan, visit michigan.gov/vote. 

As polls and political pundits work to predict the still evolving presidential race, an expert in Michigan says if the vote is close, one group “could potentially decide the state.”

Erick Gonzalez Jeunke is a political analyst specializing in Latinx politics at Michigan State University. In an interview with the Michigan Public Radio Network, he said the state’s 400,000 eligible Latinos voters could hold the key to winning in Michigan, if the campaigns reach out to them.

Listen: Political analyst says Michigan Latino voters ‘could potentially decide the state’

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michelle Jokisch Polo, WKAR News: In 2020 Joe Biden won the presidential election in Michigan by fewer than 200,000 votes. With more than 300,000 eligible Latino voters in Michigan, this group could prove vital in the state. How are parties engaging this voting bloc?

Erick Gonzalez Jeunke: I haven’t seen a lot of engagement for specifically this voting block. What that means is what they should have been doing and what I haven’t seen a lot of, but a lot of this happens behind the scenes, obviously, are registration drives. One of the gaps for Latino voters nationally, and then of course here in Michigan, is not just turning out to vote, but being registered to vote. A large part of that gap — about 70% of eligible voters — are even registered to vote. And so that’s part of the big gap. I mean, this is one of the lingering things, if you account for that, once you just look at registered voters, Latinos turn out at about the same rates as other groups, but the gap is really in getting individuals registered to vote. So that requires a lot of work, that requires the parties caring about these voters. Now when we get into this part of the season, a lot of the parties both nationally and here in Michigan, either leave that up to other groups, or they say, ‘look, we have limited resources. We can’t go out and mobilize people who aren’t registered.’ So a lot of that work takes place in the years and months that lead up to these elections.

MJP: This time around, it seems that there may have been fewer young democrats showing up to vote like they did in 2020, in the state primary election. Why do you think this is and tell us about the young Latino vote in November?

EGJ: I think it’s probably due to a not very competitive set of federal races, and then earlier in the year, a not very competitive presidential primary. But it’s also just an enthusiasm gap. We’re right in the middle of seeing this change with the change at the top of the ticket from Biden to Harris. I was just looking at some national polling data today, and what’s happening here in the Midwest and in Michigan is that Harris has seemed to have activated — particularly younger voters’ — enthusiasm about this race. So paying attention, getting excited, and that excitement turns into actual voting. It can turn into knocking on doors. It can turn into working for the campaign. So it’s still a little bit early to see what the overall effect of this is, but the early signs indicate that a change at the top of the ticket may reverse some of this lack of enthusiasm that we saw in the primaries, and particularly for younger Latinos.

MJP: How important do you think the Latino voting bloc is for the state’s general election?

EGJ: It depends how close the race is. It could potentially decide the state, and yet that depends on if the parties do the work to mobilize and get Latinos who aren’t registered, registered to get folks to turn out. So unfortunately, we won’t know until after the election. And it comes down to how close is Michigan actually going to be? It’s looking a lot less close than it did a month ago. But things could change, and we could go back to a really close race, if I had to put money on it right now, that it’s probably not going to be as close as we thought it was a month ago. But if it’s close, the Latino vote could be really, really important, and the Democratic and  Republican parties could say, ‘boy, we really should have done more work to mobilize Latino voters in Michigan, because we could have taken it.’ And I think both parties would say the same thing about Pennsylvania andWisconsin.

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Erick Gonzalez Jeunke, political analyst specializing in Latinx politics at Michigan State University.

Editor’s note: A previously uploaded version of this episode included incorrect audio from an earlier episode about grief and loss.

A staggering amount of metro Detroit’s polling stations are not accessible for disabled people — 84%, according to a 2022 audit by Detroit Disability Power.

Subscribe to Created Equal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Another, less visible, barrier to democratic participation is equitable access to information. Yet nearly half of Detroit households don’t have broadband access.

That picture only gets worse when you account for household income. 

Voting sites inaccessible 

There were four criteria Detroit Disability Power used in their audit to define accessibility at a polling location: 

1. An accessible parking area with a clear pathway into the building
2. A fully accessible voter assist terminal (VAT)
3. An accessible entrance into the building
4. An accessible booth for casting paper ballots privately

Dessa Cosma from Detroit Disability Power says that being able to vote in-person without barriers is a democratic issue, but the state of polling location accessibility now is not acceptable. 

“I can tell you as a disabled voter, it is frustrating and demoralizing and dehumanizing to go exercise my right to vote and realize that people weren’t prepared for me to show up,” Cosma said. “When they were thinking about who mattered and people they needed to set up their day for, I wasn’t on their list.”

Detroit Disability Power plans to conduct another audit of metro Detroit’s polling locations for the general election in November. 

Internet access 

Democratic acts such as voting, accessing a city hall website, attending virtual public meetings, or contacting representatives are all reliant on having internet access.  

Detroit is among the worst-connected cities in the nation, with nearly 40% of homes without a broadband connection. 

But access to broadband internet is only one of three pillars of digital equity, says Christopher Ali, telecommunications research at Penn State University. The other two pillars are affordability and skillset. 

“The internet is our window to the world right now. It’s how we get news and information […] it’s how we engage with the many of the governmental services we need to do on a daily basis. It’s how we book the COVID vaccine and apply for benefits and file our taxes,” Ali said.

Cosma and Ali both joined Created Equal on Wednesday to discuss equitable access to voting and information.

Guests:  

• Dessa Cosma is the executive director of Detroit Disability Power

• Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and professor of telecommunications in the Bellisario College at Penn State. Ali is the author of “Farm Fresh Broadband: Politics of Rural Connectivity.” 

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Absentee ballot requests are now available in Michigan for this November’s general election.

Michigan voters can ask for an absentee ballot by turning in an application online, by mail, or at their local clerk’s office.

The ballots themselves are scheduled to become available Sept. 26 after the list of candidates becomes finalized.

Voting by mail has become a more popular option in the state’s elections since 2018, when Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment that allowed for absentee voting without an excuse.

For example, numbers from the Michigan Department of State show over 150,000 more people voted absentee in this year’s presidential primary election than in 2020.

State officials recommend requesting an absentee ballot at least 15 days before an election. The 2024 general election is Nov. 5.

Detroit residents had a chance to vote in Tuesday’s primary election to select candidates that will appear on the November general election ballot. 

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the 13th Congressional District, which includes most of Detroit and several Downriver communities, incumbent Democrat Shri Thanedar held off a challenge from City Councilmember Mary Waters.

Thanedar won the primary with 54% of the vote.  He had a large advantage in campaign finances and used part of that money to run a flurry of television ads in the days leading up to the election. Thanedar will face Republican Martell Bivings in November, who was unopposed in the GOP primary. 

James Hooper won the Republican primary in the 12th Congressional District, which represents about a third of Detroit.  He defeated Linda Sawyer 60% to 40%  Hooper will go on to face incumbent Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in November. Tlaib was uncontested in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s 12th District.   

Michigan voters also narrowed the list of candidates running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin won the Democratic primary, defeating actor and entrepreneur Hill Harper by a 3-1 statewide margin. Former Congressman Mike Rogers prevailed in the GOP contest for Senate, outpacing former Congressman Justin Amash. Rogers and Slotkin will appear on the November ballot. 

In the Wayne County Sheriff race, incumbent Democrat Raphael Washington won the nomination for his party, defeating Joan Merriweather by a 2-1 margin. He’ll face Republican challenger T.P. Nykoriak, who defeated Republican Articia Bomer, in November.

Additionally Wayne County voters passed two ballot initiatives. Proposal P, a measure renewing a millage to help fund county parks for five years, passed by a large margin. Voters also approved Proposition A, which removes language in the Wayne County Charter requiring it find a new auditor every eight years.

Voters in Detroit overwhelmingly passed Proposal L, which renews the city’s Library Operating Millage for another 10 years, with 85% of residents supporting the measure.

For more primary election results, visit wdet.org/series/michigan-election-results.

Other headlines for Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024:

• The Jackson House will be honored during a ceremony at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Thursday night.
• The Detroit Police Department is holding annual National Night Out events this week, with some events planned for Wednesday night.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Many Bangladeshi Americans in Michigan are celebrating on Monday amid news that the country’s prime minister resigned and fled the country.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decision to flee comes after weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs descended into violence and grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule.

Student protestors have been asking the government to end the quota system, which allocated one-third of all government jobs to the descendants of those who fought in the Independence War of 1971. That left a small number of jobs for others in a country with more than 170 million people.

The government met protestors with force — killing hundreds and wounding and arresting thousands.  More than 200 people have been killed by government forces in the last few days as people demanded answers about the deaths of student protestors. 

Thousands of protestors celebrated the news of her resignation in the capital Dhaka.  But the celebrations soon turned violent in places, with protesters attacking symbols of her government and party, ransacking and setting fires in several buildings.

A community gathering is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at Jayne Field in Detroit. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Other headlines for Monday, Aug. 5, 2024:

•  The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says it is providing more than $118 million in food benefits to 983,531 students through its new Michigan Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program.
• The Michigan Department of Transportation is inviting the public to give online feedback about its five-year transportation program.
• The Hamtramck Police Department is seeking youth applicants ages 12-15 for the first Hamtramck Police Youth Academy.
• Central City Health is offering free dental exams and x-rays this month in Midtown Detroit.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

A recent survey by the University of Michigan and Outlier Media shows many Detroiters won’t vote this year because they don’t trust the political system. 

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The survey, conducted by U-M’s Detroit Metro Area Communities Study (DMACS) and supported by U-M Poverty Solutions, showed Latino Detroiters were more likely to stay away from the polls on Election Day, with 24% of respondents saying they’re not likely to vote. That compares to 8% of white residents and 11% of Black Detroiters. 

Voters under 35 were about twice as likely as voters 35 and over to suggest they were unlikely to vote in the general elections in November, the survey showed.

However, DMACS data manager Yucheng Fan says we shouldn’t be viewing those who say they’re unlikely to vote as disengaged.

“The survey shows many of these Detroit residents are involved in other nonelectoral civic activities and following the news,” she said. “But for a variety of reasons, voting in November is not a priority for them.”

The survey was administered from April 1 to April 12, 2024, and captures the views of a representative sample of 1,100 Detroit residents.

“We have a survey in the field now asking Detroiters again about their intention to vote, and it will be interesting to see if a different Democratic presidential candidate mobilizes more voters,” said Mara Ostfeld, a faculty lead for the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study in a statement.

Other headlines for Wednesday, July 31, 2024: 

• Detroit City Council has approved Phase One of a its neighborhood solar initiative, despite objections by Council President Mary Sheffield that the arrays could be placed in better locations than residential areas.
• Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Detroit next week, marking her first campaign stop in Michigan since President Biden ended his reelection bid.
• The family of Duke Fakir is providing an opportunity for Detroit music fans to honor his life at a viewing set for noon to 8 p.m. Thursday at Hitsville; followed by a celebration of life service from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in northwest Detroit.
• Tigers fans will once again be able to watch the team play on Comcast cable systems following the resolution of a contract dispute between Comcast and Diamond Sports.
• Pre-season injuries continue to hurt the Detroit Lions, as defensive end John Cominsky suffered a knee injury on Tuesday during a padded practice. Kicker Michael Badgley received a season-ending injury last week while getting ready for practice. ESPN reports that he suffered a torn hamstring.   
• Don’t forget that early voting is underway throughout Michigan. You can cast your ballot at any of the 14 early voting centers in Detroit through Sunday.  Primary Election Day is next Tuesday, August 6.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Early in-person voting opened across Michigan this past weekend ahead of next week’s primary elections.

According to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, around 6,400 people voted Saturday and around 4,200 people came to the polls on Sunday.

At a press briefing Monday, Benson said over 1.6 million people in the state have requested an absentee ballot. Meanwhile, around 700,000 ballots have been returned.

David Becker with the Center for Election Innovation and Research said spreading voting out across a span of days, rather than allowing it only on Election Day, is better for ballot access and election security.

“Concentrating all voting into a single 12- or 14-hour period on a single Tuesday creates a single point of potential failure for a lot of things to happen. Could be traffic. It could be weather. It could be a power outage. It could be some kind some kind of intentional attack on the system, a cyber event or something else,” Becker said.

Election officials said the only notable issue so far during early voting came Saturday morning when a State of Michigan server became overloaded.

Benson said backup plans allowed voting to continue uninterrupted and that she’s confident it won’t happen again.

The early voting period is part of a series of recent election changes that also allow local clerks to start some pre-processing, but not counting, of absentee ballots ahead of Election Day.

Sterling Heights City Clerk Melanie Ryska said that goes a long way toward getting election results available faster.

“With pre-processing or early tabulation, we hope to work and alleviate some of that work and that strain we have on Election Day. That will give us an opportunity to focus on the ballots that are being returned the day before or on Election Day, to process those on Election Day,” Ryska said.

For comparison, Ryska said it took her team over 27 hours during the 2020 presidential election cycle to finish going through all of the absentee ballots it received.

Election officials are hoping to avoid a repeat this year of tensions from the fallout of the 2020 election, when Michigan became a focal point of efforts to overturn the results of the presidential race.

Michigan saw several policy changes following that experience. This is the first major cycle when they’ll be tested.

Aside from creating an eight day in-person early-voting period and allowing for some pre-processing of ballots, new Michigan election laws further criminalized the intimidation of election workers.

“We’ve also been running scenario planning exercises with law enforcement, first responders, and our clerks all across the state to make sure that we’ve got a rapid response plan in place if anything does erupt or occur on Election Day so that we can be ready,” Benson said.