'Voting for a brighter future': Voters trickle into polls for primary

Yahoo

3 days ago

Lawn signs promoting candidates seemed to multiply overnight ahead of Election Day in Detroit as mayoral hopefuls made their last-minute attempts to lure voters to the polls to support them as the race was narrowed from nine candidates to two.
On a hot August day with Canadian wildfire smoke in the air, Detroiters went to the polls in a trickle with turnout expected to range between 13%-18% for the Aug. 5 primary election, according to Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey.
At Detroit Lions Academy on the city's west side around lunchtime, several voters made their way inside the school to have their voices heard.
Pablo Marcos, 24, moved to the city a few years ago after living in Grand Rapids and attending school in Ann Arbor. As a newer Detroit resident, he said he wants to be politically engaged and planned to vote for Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield, saying that, while she's not as progressive as he might hope for, he said she feels like a 'safe choice.'
Among changes he would like to see, Marcos criticized public subsidies for developers who don't always follow through on their promises and called for more affordable housing. He also said he wants a mayor who can stand up to President Donald Trump's policies, from his deportations to funding cuts.
'I mean the list could on, but someone who wants to stand up and has a backbone for the people they serve not just the donors they get their money from,' he said of his vision for Detroit's next mayor.
Omar Deadwilder, 43, who said he works with youths with disabilities as a vocational counselor for the state, also said he planned to vote for Sheffield, touting her experience on the City Council.
'We need somebody in there who knows what they're doing day one,' he said. While he said he likes Pastor Solomon Kinloch as a pastor, he said he would have a steep learning curve if elected mayor.
'He has a good heart for the city, but I don't think he would know what to do day one,' Deadwilder said.
As for Adrianne McCutchen, 56, of Detroit, she declined to say how she planned to vote. 'I'm just looking forward to the candidates being narrowed down,' she said. She touted what has happened in the city during Mayor Mike Duggan's tenure and hopes growth in the city will continue under his successor, though she also expressed hope for some change.
'Yet, hopefully this candidate will at least enhance the neighborhoods. The city, overall, needs it,' she said.
Campaigners for different candidates at both North Rosedale Park Community House and Renaissance High School, however, expressed concern that voter turnout was unusually thin this year. Two campaigners for mayoral candidate Saunteel Jenkins said that they had been there since before 7 a.m., and by 2 p.m., they had only seen about 35 voters cast their votes.
An elderly couple at Renaissance High provided a possible explanation. Gerald and Mary Ellen Clark, 91 and 86 respectively, said Renaissance was their third polling place of the day. Though they declined to say who they were voting for, the pair said that they drove to Fick Elementary School as they had for years, only to find it closed. The next polling location they tried didn't serve their district, and they hoped to get lucky on the third try with Renaissance.
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Though Detroit's mayoral race has garnered significant publicity, municipalities in metro Detroit, including Hamtramck, Southfield and Pontiac, have narrowed down mayoral options who will vie for a seat in November as well. Over in Southfield, the polls seemed a little busier at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Fannie Tillman, 54, was accompanied to the polls by her son Jacob, 19, who attends university in Alabama. Despite the age gap, taxes and road repairs were at the top of their priorities.
"My taxes are not coming down, and I'm not getting enough city services for what I'm paying for," said Fannie. "I'm getting the silliest fines for things that are not warranted."
At the same time in Sterling Heights, Joseph Hunter, 39, turned to Chat GPT to help him winnow down the candidates he should vote for in the city council primary, looking for some guidance on who the more progressive candidates are. Only one name came up: Michael V. Radtke Jr., but he began doing some more digging from other results, being sure to check the sources the artificial intelligence relied on, he said.
Outside of Harwood Elementary School, before he went inside to vote, he said he also planned to vote for Robert Mijac, Maria G. Schmidt, Barbara A. Ziarko and Deanna Koski.
Hunter, who works for LGBT Detroit, moved to Sterling Heights a couple of years ago, and said that while he has had mostly positive experiences with city government, he can't say the same about the city's police, detailing questioning from an officer after Hunter said he parked his car to see a movie asking him what he was doing there and insinuating that he does drugs.
'So when I really sit back and think about what I hope city council can do, I would say something about policing to where it's not as hostile to people of color,' he said.
Back in Detroit, Previn Dixon, 60, came to North Rosedale Park Community House to vote with his wife as they had done for years. Dixon said he hopes the next mayor can do more to end violence in the community, especially in light of the recent drive-by shooting in a Detroit park that took the lives of 4-year-old Samir Grubbs and 18-year-old Daviyon Shelmonson-Bey.
"My wife and I, we have several young children. We came out to vote for a brighter future for our children," said Dixon. 'You've got violence, kids getting shot in the streets. We need some stronger leadership to combat that."
Though Dixon didn't say who he planned to vote for, he stressed the importance of showing up to the polls. "Every voting opportunity — I've never missed a vote," said Dixon. "Next four years, that's going to be very important for who's going to have the reins running our city."
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Metro Detroit voters help narrow down candidates for general election
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