Technical issues temporarily halted early voting on Saturday, the first day Michiganders could cast their ballots on tabulating machines at polling places across the state for the Aug. 6 primary election.
Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's office, said Saturday morning that a “server issue” had affected the performance of electronic poll books that track voters and ballots in certain jurisdictions.
“The Department of Elections and clerks always prepare for the possibility of connectivity or technical issues occurring during early voting, and our early voting process is designed to allow voting to continue if technology becomes temporarily unavailable, using secure offline backup procedures,” Benander said. “The backup processes worked.”
“Voters can vote and every voter and ballot will be recorded and logged.”
Because of the issues, Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist said the township used paper to record votes from about 8:30 a.m. until 11 a.m., when the technology began working properly.
By 1 p.m., the problem had been resolved across the state.
Detroit's elections director, Daniel Baxter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfree told the News that the issue “is not going to stop the Detroit Elections Department from doing its job. We've been doing this job for a long time, so we know what to do.”
Saturday marked the first of nine days of early voting. After voters cast their ballots, clerks across the state will feed them into vote-counting machines to be counted after the polls close on Aug. 6.
Dozens of Detroiters stopped by a city-sponsored block party outside the Detroit Department of Elections, where staff organized free food and entertainment on West Grand Boulevard and encouraged neighbors to stop by the building to vote early.
Winfrey said the block party was the first of many planned for neighbors of other early voting sites in Detroit.
Vicki McClain said she had already voted absentee, but was pleased to learn there was still time to register people she knew to vote: The 60-year-old Detroit resident lives nearby and plans to work the primary polls.
McClain added that she is urging everyone she knows to vote as soon as possible and is especially concerned about electing a candidate who would raise the minimum wage. She said many people in Detroit, including her daughter, are struggling with the high cost of living and lack of access to high-paying jobs.
“She's been supporting her whole family on $12 an hour, and it's not enough,” McClain said of her daughter.
Diallo Danielli, 52, said he plans to vote soon and will try to get as many people as possible to vote.
“Our lives depend on it,” said Danielle, of Detroit.
Early voters were even harder to find at other polling places in Detroit that had few residents, including the Northwest Activities Center and Palmer Park Community Center.
Royal Oak Board of Elections Chair Tricia Graziano told The News that only 31 people had shown up to the Royal Oak Senior Community Center by about 1 p.m. Saturday, below poll workers' expectations.
Graziano said a glitch in the computer system forced poll workers in Royal Oak to help residents vote by hand.
“Our computers were just spinning,” she said. “Nothing was coming up, no voter names were coming up.”
Graziano and other field staff had to go to City Hall to verify that residents were registered to vote and didn't have an absentee ballot before printing out ballots for voters to fill out, she said.
Once voters have cast their ballots, staff at the venue will manually enter them into a computer system, she said. While this process doesn't cause significant delays, it does present a problem, she said, as it creates unexpected developments on the first day of early voting.
Graziano was working at the same location when more than 78,000 Michiganders voted early in the presidential primary in February.
“Everybody that comes in here always says early voting is a great idea,” Graziano said of early voting. “Nobody complained. Nobody complained when the system went down.”
Michelle Hunt, 57, of Royal Oak, said she voted at the Royal Oak Senior Community Center on Saturday to avoid the Aug. 6 voting rush.
Hunt said his biggest concern about this primary is the presidential race.
“I encourage everyone to vote early because at least if you do it early you're not going to be in a rush when it's time to get to the polls and vote and get in line,” she said.
Following the passage of a constitutional amendment allowing early voting in 2022, the Michigan Legislature approved a bill in 2023 that would require at least nine days of early voting across Michigan and allow clerks to work with states to provide locations where ballots can be marked and inserted into tabulating machines before Election Day.
The early voting period for the primary election begins Saturday and runs through Aug. 4.
