The day before Detroit’s primary election, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told The Metro “less than five” polling places in the city have accessibility problems — and that her legal obligation includes ensuring entrances and voting machines are accessible.

This week, nonprofit advocacy organization Detroit Disability Power pushed back. The group disputed Winfrey’s claims, pointing to its 2025 survey of 167 polling locations. The findings, they say, reveal widespread barriers and raise serious concerns about Detroit polling place accessibility ahead of the November election. The audit of this year’s primary found that half of the surveyed polling locations had accessibility issues with entrances and doorways, and 70% had problems with Voter Access Terminals (VAT).

Eric Welsby, the policy director for Detroit Disability Power, joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to dispute Winfrey’s claims. He explained the persistent barriers for people with disabilities at Detroit polling locations and how this issue is not unique to Detroit.

Documented problems persist

During the 2021 election, disability advocates filed an ADA complaint saying key voting information, like where and how to vote, was inaccessible online for users of screen readers, affecting thousands of Detroiters. And, some polling locations across metro Detroit remain inaccessible to voters with disabilities.

The Metro contacted Clerk Winfrey’s office for comment, but received no response.

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Registered voters not casting a vote is a problem in the city, one that seems to be bigger here than in other Midwest cities. 

In Central Ohio’s Franklin County, the 2024 presidential election turnout was 66%. In Milwaukee, it was 85%. In Chicago, it was about 68% — and that’s the lowest it’s been in 80 years. But in Detroit, during the same election year, it was just 47%. 

Mara Ostfeld is the research director at the Center for Racial Justice and a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She joined The Metro on Wednesday to share insights into why some Detroit residents don’t vote, and how to increase voter turnout. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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Here on The Metro, we’ve been talking to Detroit’s mayoral candidates about how they would lead if elected, and what they would prioritize as the city’s next mayor.

Outlier Media Civic Life Reporter Briana Rice has also been covering the Detroit mayoral race. She recently customized a fun tool for Outlier called the Meet Your Mayor Quiz to help Detroit voters compare candidates and discover which individuals align best with their priorities. 

The 21-question quiz matches voters with candidates based on their views about housing, safety and other key issues. Outlier was able to create and localize the quiz thanks to the nonprofit newsroom THE CITY in New York City, which made the code open source for all to use.

Rice joined The Metro to share more about the quiz and how voters are utilizing it.

Take the quiz here.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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Detroit voters will elect a new mayor this fall. Nine people are running to succeed Mike Duggan, who’s making an independent bid for governor next year. The top two finishers in next month’s primary election will advance to the general election in November.

WDET is having one-on-one conversations with voters about the issues they want the next mayor and city council to address. We call it the Citizen Vox Project.

WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley spoke with Eugene Brown II, a resident of Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood on the city’s west side, about why he says honesty and action matters in the city’s next leader.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Eugene Brown II: Because we’re not too big on the words anymore. We need to see action, movement, growth, development, and these are all things that are taking place now in the city of Detroit and have been taking place for the past 15 years. So, we have always been at work setting up things, having successful things happen by by way of the water department. Even initiating the things that have happened with the Gordie Howe Bridge. You see what I’m saying? So, we’ve been hard at work, really, in the streets.

Bre’Anna Tinsley, WDET News: Who do you think right now is the best person for the job? Do you have someone in mind?

EB II: Well, you know, when I look at Mary Sheffield — I usually don’t, I usually don’t endorse people. But when I look at the Sheffield brand, it’s pretty solid.

BT: What is it specifically about her brand that speaks out to you?

EB II: Well I would you say from past to present. And then you could probably say to yourself, if you know certain people that have that name, then you probably can say that for yourself. You can put it together however you want to put together. I don’t name drop, but you could just look at that and just put it together and see. And then if she lying, she’d be called out, just like anybody else is.

BT: Is there anything specifically in your neighborhood that you would like to see the mayor possibly work on?

EB II: Well, our neighborhood is pretty solid. We’re pretty much a group of family. The only really thing that we really focus on here is protection, peace, happiness, love, no violence, no killings, no stabbings, no robbings; none of that stuff out here. We don’t need any of that. I came from the ’80s. I already lived through all that — ’90s drug era, crack epidemic, Devil’s Night. You see, then ‘YN’ crazy culture, like whatever we’re dealing with right now. But the Detroit Police Department is doing a very fine job, as well as the adjacent, you know, task force that have been set up for the 25 years [sic].We all know this Wayne State progression. It’s a beautiful thing to see people coming together in the city to handle life differently after things were so ripped off, like the water department. We received about a what, 25% pay cut in 2008 to actually help with this process. We actually helped with this process because we were robbed of our money. Well, not robbed. I’ll say… our money was put in trust.

We are investors in the Gordie Howe project, because we had to take the blow of this for the citizens of Detroit to drink water to live, and to flush their boo boo down the pipes so they don’t die. So, you know, we’ve really been hard at work, city of Detroit Water Department, so as far as I’m concerned, since we worked the waters, a portion of these assets that they’re wanting to collect, we should probably be repaid. So, I’d like to see that happen, because all those brothers, they live in this community, too.

Michigan-based nonprofit Rank MI Vote is campaigning for signatures to get ranked choice voting on the November 2026 ballot.

This week on MichMash, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben talk with Rank MI Vote Executive Director Pat Zabawa to learn more about this new voting style and why he says it would be better for Michigan.

In this episode:

• What is ranked choice voting?
• Is ranked choice voting a better system?
• What other ballot proposals are groups trying to get on the 2026 ballot?

Ranked choice voting has steadily increased in popularity across the country for the past decade — most notably in the Democratic mayoral primary race in New York City.

This alternative voting method allows voters to rank their choice of candidates on the ballot in order of preference.

Rank MI Vote’s effort to get ranked choice voting on the ballot recently passed the state board of canvassers. Pat Zabawa, the organization’s executive director, says this method would be helpful in making our voting system more efficient. 

“Michigan increasingly is being represented by candidates who haven’t won more than 50% of voters’ support,” Zabawa said. “That’s true in general elections, and that’s true in primaries. We see that the 2016 U.S. presidential race and Michigan 2024 U.S. presidential race, ranked choice voting addresses the issue that voters see and make sure that voters are represented.”  

Still, Kasben says opponents will likely call the proposal confusing, and “fight back against the idea that it wouldn’t cause a delay in getting results,” she said. “Some also say it goes against the ‘one person one vote’ rule.” 

Supporters of the Rank MI Vote initiative will need to collect more than 440,000 signatures that are needed to get the initiative on the ballot in 2026. 

More from WDET:

• The Metro: The case for ranked choice voting in Michigan
• Detroit Evening Report: Trump order aims to dismantle US Department of Education; March Madness + more
• The promises and drawbacks of ranked choice voting 

Volunteers with the Michigan-based nonprofit Rank MI Vote have been working hard to get ranked choice voting on the general election ballot in November 2026.

Their effort just passed the state board of canvassers on Friday. Now they need to get hundreds of thousands of signatures over the next 180 days to get the initiative on the ballot. If passed, voters would be able to rank political candidates by their preference.

Pat Zabawa, executive director of Rank MI Vote, joined The Metro on Wednesday to make the case for ranked choice voting and why he says it would more accurately reflect the will of Michigan voters.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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