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15 hours ago
- Politics
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Why Detroiters say they skip the ballot box — 5 key findings from our reporting
This summer, the Detroit Free Press analyzed more than two decades of election data to better understand the city's dismal voter turnout trajectory. We also interviewed Detroiters in the city's lowest-turnout precincts, from Osborn to Delray, Brightmoor to Dexter-Linwood, in search of direct insight as to why many Detroiters just don't vote. We've published two columns about what we've learned, with more to come. Part 1: 24 years of Detroit election data shows not enough people vote. Can we fix it? Part 2: Detroit's comeback left some behind ― and now they're not voting But here are our key findings so far. 1. Abandoning local elections Forty-one percent of voting age Detroiters cast ballots in the 2005 municipal election. By 2021, only 20% showed up to reelect Mayor Mike Duggan for the third time ― just one in five potential voters, many of them residents of the city's most stable, prosperous neighborhoods. (For a consistent measure of turnout over time, the Free Press compared the number of ballots cast to the U.S. Census Bureau count of Detroit's voting age population, which yields different results than the city's official turnout figures.) At the same time, the percentage of Detroiters voting in presidential elections has remained relatively consistent, staying above 50%; it's the same in gubernatorial elections, with turnout reliably above 30%. It's not that Detroiters are voting less across the board. They're just abandoning local, municipal elections — the ones that arguably affect them the most. 2. Left out Too many would-be voters told us they just don't feel like they're part of the city's economic turnaround. Yoshi Riley, 47, who lives near Dexter Avenue and Davison Highway, does not believe inner-city neighborhoods have been adequately impacted by vast investment in central business districts. She wants to see more abandoned homes rehabilitated and put to use, and more done to address homelessness – but Riley said she'd need to see significant change around her in order to prioritize seeking out candidate information and putting in the effort to vote. It's a sentiment we heard over and over around the city from non-voters. And even avid voters, at times frustrated with their less-engaged neighbors, expressed understanding of that dynamic. 3. Campaigns focus on reliable voters Political consultants and candidates explained the dynamics of campaigning in this city: With limited resources and tough competition, it just makes sense to canvas the densely populated neighborhoods where more voters live. That means neighborhoods like Green Acres, Sherwood Forest, the University District and Palmer Woods get most of the attention, and, potentially, most of the influence. Candidates tend to ask election officials for voter lists in only the top 50 or 100 precincts with the highest typical voter turnout, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told us, a strategy she believes is shortsighted. Jarrell Gaskins, 40, a founder of the Teppert Street Block Club on the city's east side, has noticed a lack of candidates knocking on doors in his Osborn-area neighborhood. 'They probably go up and down the Outer Drive area,' said Gaskins, who votes in presidential elections, but had not been engaged in recent municipal races. 'We don't know who to go for. We don't know who represents us. You'd think this would be an important area for knocking on doors.' 4. Digital campaigning leaves in-person contact lacking Roy Nichols, 53, in Osborn, remembers a time, decades ago, when campaigners would frequent the neighborhood using bullhorns to urge people to vote. 'Go back to the old school. Bring them loud speakers out ― 'Can you please come out to vote.' Refresh their memory. That's how to get people if you want people to vote.' Daniel Baxter, a top election official in Winfrey's office, shares the same memory, complete with campaigners in straw, red-white-and-blue hats. He lamented the way so much campaigning is now online, when Detroiters often 'expect the common touch out of campaigns.' "I'm from the east side. The general consensus is the east side doesn't vote. That's not true, you just have to speak our language,' Baxter said. 5. Non-voters can be convinced Chauritha Simmons, 52, who lives in the Tiny Homes community in Dexter-Linwood, can't remember the last time she voted in a city election, and was unfamiliar with the candidates in this year's mayoral race. But she did show a sliver of interest: Perhaps, Simmons said, the mayor's office could use 'a woman's touch.' 'Any women running?' she asked. It was a hint of interest and care for the city that we heard even from the most disengaged non-voters across the city. Baxter said people-driven campaigning is key to addressing voter turnout. "It's people," he said. "It's not a text message. It's not an email. It's not Twitter." Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. If you have a differing view from a letter writer, please feel free to submit a letter of your own in response. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 5 takeaways from our dive into Detroit voter turnout crisis | Opinion Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
10-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Inside Ohio State's QB battle as Buckeyes look to defend title
The defending national champions will have a new quarterback, and he Detroit Free Press' Tony Garcia and the IndyStar's Nathan Baird break it down on Before The Snap.
