Voters across Michigan wrapped up a midterm election yesterday that, for many, began weeks earlier during the state’s early voting window. For voters with physical disabilities, the right to cast a ballot is protected in state law and under federal protections like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Help America Vote Act. 

Yet audits in metro Detroit have repeatedly found the opposite on the ground. Last year, Detroit Disability Power reported that only 13% of polling places were fully accessible across nearly 300 sites. The Metro’s pre-election coverage highlighted widespread problems with entrances and accessible voting machines in metro Detroit. 

On the heels of the midterm election, The Metro team wondered: What did access for disabled voters look like during early voting and on Election Day? 

Eric Welsby, policy and advocacy lead at Detroit Disability Power, joined Robyn Vincent to discuss the persistent barriers he observed, and what can be done about it.

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It’s Election Day in America, and once again, the question is what kind of country do we want to be?

In state after state, new voting laws have made it harder to cast a ballot. Meanwhile, election workers across the country face threats and trust in the process is eroding.

But there is also new energy and a strong current of change moving through the country. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, leads the mayor’s race. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed and Mallory McMorrow are pushing bold, grassroots campaigns. Progressives like Omar Fateh and Katie Wilson are gaining traction in Minneapolis and Seattle, respectively.

Their popularity says something: voters want affordable housing, clean water, buses that run, health care that works, food that is fresh and cheap. And that demand, more than any single race, may be democracy’s last line of defense.

So today, as Americans vote, The Metro’s Robyn Vincent turns to E.J. Dionne, a New York Times columnist and Brookings scholar, to help read this moment and unpack what it tells us about the future of American democracy.

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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.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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