After Detroit's 2020 chaos, skeptics and supporters agree on 2024: 'The vote is accurate'
Four years ago, supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed a Detroit vote counting center, chanting "stop the count" and spreading a slew of conspiracies — some that exist to this day.
But now, with a few changes, the vibe is entirely different.
"The results are accurate," said Jeff Schaeper, a Trump-supporting poll challenger at Huntington Place in downtown Detroit, in an interview late Tuesday. At the time, Detroit had yet to release any results, but the heavily Democratic city is expected to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Schaeper was one of the many to flock to the absentee counting site that became a powder keg in 2020 after unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud. That chaos prompted Schaeper to review the last eight days of absentee counting in Detroit. He has spent past presidential elections as a poll challenger in Pontiac, he said.
"This is an area, based on 2020, the area that needs the most supervision," he said at Huntington Place.
But Schaeper said he was "very satisfied" by what he's seen since Oct. 28.
"I can say right now at this moment they are doing everything properly and they are doing everything by the book," Schaeper told the Free Press just before polls closed on Election Day at 8 p.m.
That includes insuring everyone is well fed.
"I got so much free food — donuts, pizza, subs, chicken dinner — that I walked in that day and I waddled out," Schaeper said.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said every absentee ballot cast in Detroit before Tuesday was counted by 4 p.m., and that the count was going better than anticipated.
She attributed the smooth process in Detroit Tuesday to vigilance. When rumors pop up, Benson's office and local officials have been standing by "to whack every mole that comes up," she said.
Changes implemented by the city's elections department include restricting the number of poll challengers and the elimination of high-speed tabulators.
Detroit elections official Daniel Baxter said Tuesday night that there have been no issues at Huntington Place since absentee counting began, adding: "Can you hear that? I think I hear somebody singing Kumbaya."
Maurice Henderson, a challenger with Detroit's NAACP branch, says the new pre-processing rules are speeding things up. "It's been a huge difference."
Ryan Mack is also with the Detroit Branch NAACP. He said he came to Huntington Place this year to watch the counting process because he wants to stop the spread of misinformation.
"I saw all the drama the last two election cycles with the confrontational MAGA supporters and misinformation and fake images about boxes moved in the Detroit area. I am going to be able to say what I see and that the lies aren't true," he said.
