For a while on the evening of Tuesday, November 7th, we felt pretty confident at the victory party for Garlin Gilchrist II, running an insurgent campaign for Detroit City Clerk. Early vote tallies, showing about 75% of the precincts, gave Gilchrist a substantial lead, 55%-45%. Naïvely, I thought that boded well for the eventual outcome, thinking that such a margin couldn’t be overcome with the rest of the precincts outstanding.
As we know now, that assumption was not borne out. At the moment (though the vote is not yet certified) the incumbent, Janice Winfrey, is supposed to have won the election by 1,482 votes, or 50.6% to 49.1% of the votes cast.
However, enough irregularities in the voting process, particularly but not exclusively related to the distribution, validation, and counting of absentee ballots, have prompted Gilchrist and his allies to organize in anticipation of pursuing a recount.
These are some of the problems that cause the Gilchrist campaign to have doubts about the integrity of the absentee voting process in particular. From a post to the campaign’s FB page on November 14, at 1:30 PM:
Throughout the months of September, October, November, and on Election Day, we documented and reported out the chaos and confusion absentee voters were experiencing. Issues such as:
- Voters like Mary McMillan receiving two confirmations for absentee ballots instead of one.
- Voters like Vivian Phillips being told by the Department of Elections that they hadn’t requested absentee ballots yet still receiving them.
- Voters like Nelson Saldana, who went to vote in person Tuesday but was erroneously told that he’d already voted absentee.
- Precincts like those at Golightly Technical Center that experienced broken down machines and inconsistent tabulation at the polls.
The recount process is expensive and it is politically fraught. Winfrey has dared Gilchrist to challenge her victory, saying that he won’t find ten errant votes let alone 1,400. But the stakes are very high, and the potential for incompetence if not outright fraud does exist.
Thus, the Gilchrist for City Clerk campaign is in the voter-education-and-fundraising mode yet again. Yesterday, they held an information session at the west side campaign office. Today, from 3:00-5:00 PM, they’re holding another one at the east side campaign office, 8325 E. Jefferson. [Oops, sorry not to get this posted any earlier!] Tomorrow, there will be a fundraising event from 5:30-7:30 PM at the TULC, 8670 Grand River Ave. Unfortunately, I can’t attend any of them myself, but I’ll give a report here when I know what was discussed.
But basically, here’s how you can help.
A successful recount will depend on three things:
1. Money. Just to get in the door, it costs $125 per precinct to conduct a recount — and there are 590 precincts in the city of Detroit. It will also cost money to hire attorneys to ensure that Gilchrist’s interests are properly protected in this process, to be conducted with the Wayne County Board of Canvassers.
2. Volunteers. The campaign would like to have at least 100 volunteers trained and prepared to be effective observers during the recount.
3. Community support. Gilchrist is a superbly qualified candidate with excellent ideas for implementing improvements and reforms in every part of his job as City Clerk. He ran a smart, effective, and well-organized campaign. (Hats off to Al Williams, campaign manager, along with several other highly accomplished and capable staff.) He has good name recognition among Detroiters, many of whom are frustrated and angry with Winfrey’s performance in the job. But at this point, he still needs to garner and maintain support for waging what could become an unpleasant fight.
For many valid reasons, historical as well as present-day, black Detroiters in particular often tend to be skeptical, shall we say, about non-Detroiters, especially white ones, having any involvement in Detroit elections. That makes it important for this recount effort to be Detroit-led as much as possible. As a consequence of being a former, not a current, resident of the city, my ability to take part is somewhat reduced. (It’s a little bogus, I admit, to claim that I am acting as my older daughter’s proxy, since she is a Detroit resident but not able to get involved much in electoral politics. But I do it anyway on occasion.)
And yet, as we all know, a failure to protect the integrity of the vote anywhere has deleterious consequences for us everywhere in the U.S. The 2016 presidential election in Michigan was possibly swung against us by the poor management of the voting process in Detroit. Our statewide elections are now less than a year away, and our future as a state is in peril. We have enough incompetent people in elected office already. We don’t need to stand by, when we have the alternative: the VOTE Fund (for Voting Openness Transparency Effort) on behalf of Garlin Gilchrist II.
If you can get involved, by donating or volunteering, please do! If you can spread the word about the effort, especially to Detroiters you know, please do!
Donations can be made here: Support the Detroit Voting Openness and Transparency Effort (VOTE) Fund.
Questions about volunteering to be a recount observer should be directed to Gilchrist’s campaign, via Facebook or Twitter (@gilchristforcityclerk), or by calling his campaign office: 313-855-8698.
I’m willing to help bundle our Daily Kos contributions to “sponsor a precinct,” in effect. Please let me know if that’s something you’d do, and we’ll get a tracker up for it. Thank you in advance for helping to protect democracy by ensuring openness and transparency in the voting process.