Detroit Clerk Orders Second Look at Poll Workers

Detroit’s City Clerk wants 3,000 poll workers to be re-evaluated prior to the elections scheduled for this year, to see if they require specialized training. Detroit has been criticized for human errors that led to problems at the polls.

Sandra Svoboda/WDET

Detroit’s City Clerk is requiring all poll workers to be re-evaluated before they begin training for the upcoming primary and general elections.

Detroit has often had problems at polling places. But the situation came to a head after the 2016 presidential election.

The state audited more than 100 precincts in the city and found that the results listed in poll books did not match the ballots they were based on.

State officials blamed the problems almost entirely on human error.

 

Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey was heavily criticized for the errors and barely held on to her office in the municipal election held last year.

Now Winfrey wants to re-evaluate more than 3,000 Detroit poll workers.

She says in a statement that the evaluations will allow the city to customize training for poll workers.

Author

  • Quinn Klinefelter
    Quinn Klinefelter is a Senior News Editor at 101.9 WDET. In 1996, he was literally on top of the news when he interviewed then-Senator Bob Dole about his presidential campaign and stepped on his feet.