Election Day 2025 live updates across Detroit and Michigan as voters head to polls

Election Day 2025 kicked off at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4 as polls opened across most of Michigan.

The Free Press is offering live election updates throughout the day, including election results after the polls close at 8 p.m., with the sights and scenes from the polls and the latest on metro Detroit races.

The lady for the job

In the late afternoon at Engine 52, a curbside voting location at a Jefferson Chalmers fire station, voters were scarce.

Longtime poll worker Cornelius Chatman, 79, estimated a total of just 25 voters since he started his shift when the polls opened at 7 a.m.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Chatman said of his time as a poll worker. “I’ve been through about eight presidents,” he said.

The retired Detroit Department of Transportation bus driver said he cast his own absentee ballot more than a week ago.

“It’s real easy. I didn’t have to drop it off on the Boulevard, I drop it in the mailbox where I stay,” he said.

Chatman, who officially became a member of Horace Sheffield’s church New Destiny Christian Fellowship, is happy to share that he voted for mayoral candidate and Horace’s daughter Mary Sheffield.

“I feel that she’s the right lady for the job since she came out of City Council President,” he said. “If she became the first Black female mayor of this city, I would tip my hat to her.”

Chatman said he had an opportunity to take a photo with Mary Sheffield at a recent pep rally on Detroit’s West side.

“This is her and I together,” Chatman said, showing a photo saved on his phone. “She didn’t back down and say, ‘no.’ She’s congenial and that’s what it’s all about. A little person like me got a chance to take a picture with a politician like her.”

— Lyndsay C. Green

‘Because of our rights’

A grill emanated smoke and the smell of smoldering food as music swept across the parking lot of the Dana P. Whitmer Human Resources Center in Pontiac shortly after 4 p.m. on Election Day. Roughly 25 people called out to voters as they entered the building to cast their ballots.

Deborah Moss, 65, said she wanted to vote specifically to help ensure local schools are funded and libraries receive the resources they need. It’s always important, and good practice for next year when statewide and federal candidates are on the ballot, she said.

“It’s always important to come out and vote because of our rights,” Moss said, putting her hand on her heart.

— Dave Boucher

Dad teaches daughters why voting matters

Deandre Batchelor said he knows it wasn’t that long ago that people in his own family couldn’t vote.

It’s the main reason it was so important for the 36-year-old to bring his three girls out to the polls in Pontiac on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people in my community don’t believe their vote matters,” Batchelor said, after casting his ballot at a Salvation Army.

“I just want to make sure I instill (voting) in my kids.”

— Dave Boucher

Firefighter supporting a police and fire millage? You bet!

At St. Lucy Catholic Church in St. Clair Shores, Joe Blevins showed up to vote with his toddler in tow after she woke up from her nap.

Blevins lives in St. Clair Shores but works as a firefighter at the Harrison Township Fire Department and said he knows firsthand the necessity of continued funding for fire and police departments, which was on his ballot Tuesday.

“More staffing would be amazing,” he said.

Blevins said he knows the police and fire funding proposal has been a bit confusing for people to follow and that some city council members have come out against it, so coming to cast his ballot in favor of the proposal felt important.

— Beki San Martin

Taylor couple lets religious beliefs guide their vote

Albert and Jackie Huizing, of Taylor, decided to turn in their early vote ballots in person at Taylor High school Tuesday, due to concerns of voter fraud.

“I want to see them go through the tabulator because there’s been so much talk about voter fraud,” Albert Huizing, 78, said. “And, this way, at least I know my ballot is being counted.”

Jackie Huizing, 68, wearing a purple “Got Jesus?” shirt, said that due to their Christian beliefs, they intend on voting for people who they believe “do the right thing.”

“We’re Christians, and we are not for a lot of the stuff that council and Taylor are for,” she said.

The couple’s primary election race was for the city’s treasurer position, which is between Nicone Dragone and Amira Garza. Albert Huizing said he prefers one candidate over the other.

“The most quote unquote qualified person is — her views are far left. And I’m not far left,” he said. “So I’m gonna go with the guy that comes around and knocks on my door and says, ‘Hey, will you vote for me?’ And he’s less qualified. …”

“You just need a reasonable person in there.”

— Eric Guzman

Police and fire departments got her support

As Election Day warmed up, voters in lighter layers walked in and out of St. Lucy’s Catholic Church in St. Clair Shores. Cheryl Kowalski, 56, said she came to vote Tuesday afternoon for one reason: A measure on the ballot to renew and add half a mill to an expiring local fire and police millage.

Her support doesn’t come because of family members who’ve worked in either department, really it’s because she feels “it’s important to support the work they do in our community.”

Kowalski said she usually votes in local elections and has already thought through who she plans to vote for in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections when Michigan’s governor will be up for a vote.

— Beki San Martin

Pontiac voter wants leaders to bring business back to city

Rahim Russell, 54, is ready for change in Pontiac. After more than 40 years in the city, he wants local leaders to push for more economic development.

“We lost General Motors, we’ve lost a lot of the businesses Pontiac used to thrive off of,” Russell said after voting at a Salvation Army in Pontiac Tuesday.

While he said each race is important, Russell is most focused on mayor. He voted for Kermit Williams, a former city council member, over current city council member Mike McGuiness.

Regardless of the outcome, he said he hopes both work together to improve Pontiac.

— Dave Boucher 

Mayoral candidate’s experience earned her vote

Madlyn Caldwell, 65, of Detroit, wore sunglasses as she stepped into the bright Election Day afternoon after casting her ballot in the city’s mayoral election at Greater Grace Temple just before 2 p.m. She said she voted for Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield.

“She had more knowledge of the city and she’s just a better candidate,” she said. The Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. “just needs a little more experience,” Caldwell said.

“I’m hoping that what (Mayor Mike) Duggan was doing, I hope it continues and it gets better,” she said. “Hopefully, she’ll continue on,” Caldwell said of Sheffield. “Because he did a great job.”

In terms of improvements she said she’s looking for, Caldwell has her eyes on boosting the city’s affordable housing stock and access to food. “Just assisting with people all the way around,” she said.

— Clara Hendrickson

A voter who didn’t know a lot about the candidates

Miki Simasko, 19, said this is his first time voting in a local election. Unlike the 2024 presidential election, when he says he felt like “everyone knew who they were voting for when they walked in,” he felt less prepared at Tuesday’s election in St. Clair Shores.

“I don’t know why I’m here actually,” said Simasko, who isn’t familiar with the candidates up for city council, as he stood outside Lake Shore High School on Tuesday afternoon. He did a bit of research in his car before walking in to vote. Nonetheless, it’s important to him to show the government that he’s an engaged citizen.

“I just listen to my uncle; he’s the one who told me I should cast my vote every time I can,” he said.

— Beki San Martin

Voter wants mayor that will move Detroit ‘down its current path’

“Religion and politics don’t mix,” said Ramon Caraballo, 50, of Detroit, on his way out from voting at Greater Grace Temple shortly after 1 p.m. as a canvasser supporting the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. urged support for the pastor.

Wearing a black Carhartt zip-up jacket, Caraballo questioned how Kinloch could run the city effectively while leading his congregation.

He said he voted for Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield to serve as the next mayor because he sees her as a candidate who will continue moving Detroit down its current path. “I like the way the city is going now,” he said. “I just didn’t want to change what’s going on.”

He touted Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s leadership of the city over the last 12 years, crediting the city leader with turning around a city in the “downslope.”

News that recently surfaced of Sheffield’s relationship with a demolition executive whose company she approved contracts for in 2019 — the same year they were together, according to a Free Press analysis — didn’t shake Caraballo’s support. “Nobody’s perfect,” he said. “They all do something, but I’m not going to hold that against her.”

— Clara Hendrickson

Downtown Pontiac development matters to voters

Al Pryor, 52, said he came out to vote early Tuesday afternoon at the Robert Bowens Senior Center in Pontiac in order to “express my right to choose public officials.”

He tries to vote as often as he can, especially in federal elections. But local races are important too — he likes the current direction of the city and hopes leaders elected this week continue to push for economic development in downtown Pontiac.

Jo MacDonald, who said she’s “over 50” years old, agreed.

She enjoys the continued improvement in the city.

“I always vote. It’s my civic duty,” she said. “You can’t complain if you don’t vote.”

— Dave Boucher

Detroit voter: Crime and food access need to be priorities

Harry Smith, 77, has lived in Detroit almost his whole life. He said he voted for Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield in the mayor’s race in an interview shortly before 1 p.m. outside Greater Grace Temple.

He said he hopes the city’s next leader focuses on issues including crime and food access in neighborhoods. He bemoaned a reality in which residents can’t just walk around the block to get what they need from a local grocery store.

But when it comes to what the city’s future holds and what its next leaders will accomplish? “Now we just have to wait and see,” Smith said.

— Clara Hendrickson

Megaphones greet voters outside polling spot in Pontiac

Dueling megaphones greeted voters at the Robert W. Bowens Senior Center in Pontiac on Election Day.

“Vote for Threlkeld, vote for Threlkeld, vote for Threlkeld!” blared one megaphone every few seconds, referencing Pontiac city council candidate Sennel Threlkeld.

City council candidate Adrian Austin had his own megaphone and implored those in the parking lot for their vote.

“Want to win, put Austin in!” he chanted, cribbing a line from the popular movie “Friday Night Lights.”

— Dave Boucher

Detroiter wants leaders who pay attention to neighborhoods

Outside Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, campaign canvassers competed with one another. “Mary for mayor” one shouted. “Kinloch for mayor” another countered.

That was the choice facing Milton Singleton, 73, of Detroit, but he declined to say how he voted in his city’s mayoral race. But the man who has called the Motor City home since the 1970s, after moving from Mississippi, said he voted for change as he has experienced the city change around him.

“And I’m almost ready to move,” he said.

When he bought his home several decades ago, he said he knew all of his neighbors and he was surrounded by other homeowners. Now, he said he doesn’t know his neighbors — many of whom are renting from landlords he has never met either. He described tenants who don’t put their trash out correctly, leaving uncollected waste to pile up. “Whatever way the wind blows, that’s the way the trash blows,” he said.

He hopes leaders in the city will pay more attention to what’s happening in neighborhoods like his. “Not necessarily all downtown and for the people … swinging money around,” he said.

— Clara Hendrickson

A grandson’s first trip to the polls

For Roosevelt Lovely, voting at Brewer Academy on Tuesday morning was a moment to make a generational impact. For Anthony Stanford, Lovely’s 9-year-old grandson, it was a milestone.

“It was important for us to come out today because I wanted to teach him what people fought for, (for) us to vote,” Lovely said. Today would be Stanford’s first time at the polls. Shy to speak, Stanford quickly said his first experience was “good,” and that he let his grandfather handle the voting process.

“I can’t really express how I feel about the candidates or the people that are trying to be in the office,” Lovely said. “I just love to vote.”

— Lyndsay C. Green

Pastor who helped family once gets her vote for mayor

With 15 years of voting on Detroit’s East side under her belt, Janay Stevens was thrilled to vote for a familiar face. “I’m encouraged to come and vote for my pastor, Reverend Kinloch,” she said.

Stevens took to the polls in a vibrant denim jacket bedazzled in blue rhinestones, pearls and buttons, and proudly stamped a sticker that read, “I am democracy in the D” on her chest.

She said she has witnessed Kinloch provide for the community in ways other pastors in the city have not, giving away food, shoes and even cars and homes. “One year, I had a really bad year for Christmas and my kids were given $300 vouchers to shop at Meijer,” she recalled.

Stevens said she believes Kinloch’s track record as a giving leader is what’s needed to render change in Detroit’s underserved neighborhoods. “I’ve spent a lot of time working downtown Detroit and I see how downtown is coming up but I stay in the inner city and I don’t see much happening here,” she said “I’m part of the community, I work in the community, I’m all for the community and it’s time for change. I believe that Kinloch will be the change.”

— Lyndsay C. Green

GOP, park upkeep on the mind of voters in St. Clair Shores

Donna Lawrence, 68, of St. Clair Shores, came out to vote at the Senior Center late Tuesday morning for her party.

“I think there are a lot (of) Republicans who don’t come out and vote, so I make sure I come out,” she said.

Lawrence said she and her husband come to vote in every election, local or otherwise, in the primaries and the general.

The population in St. Clair Shores is “really aging,” Lawrence said. “We’ve all grown up together, we don’t leave.”

Recently retired Doug Maxwell also came out to vote at the Senior Center on Tuesday afternoon. Maxwell said he wishes there had been more information about each candidate available inside the polling location because he doesn’t know too much about who he just voted for.

“I picked the first three people, but my vote’s in,” he said referring to his vote for the city council seats up for reelection in St. Clair Shores.

Though casting a vote is important to him, he’s not too worried that city council members will have an outsized impact on his life. “I don’t think anything they could do would be negative enough to say ‘I gotta say something about this,’ ” Maxwell said.

Right now, he’s concerned about keeping public spaces in his city nice. “Clean up” the beaches, he said specifically referring to Memorial Park Beach, where he said he goes year-round for the peace he feels there, no matter the weather.

Goose poop at the park is a problem, he said. “It’s a beautiful park. Invest a little more in having it immaculate,” he said.

— Beki San Martin

A mother leads by example at the polls

Nadwa Atway-Saleh, 55, was accompanied by her 18-year-old daughter, Norah Saleh, who voted for the first time Tuesday at Canfield Community Center in Dearborn Heights. Norah Saleh said it was a “fun” experience and the duo voted for current Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun.

Atway-Saleh said she has been voting since she was 18 and is trying to show her children that their vote does matter, in both local elections and presidential elections.

“I need to show them that you have to exercise your right. This a right and a privilege to vote. And so you need to exercise it and it’s important because it affects your daily life,” Atway-Saleh said.

Once all elections are final, Atway-Saleh and Norah Saleh plan on attending city council meetings so they can be involved in important matters in the community.

“I want her to know that she was able to have a say in who’s sitting up on that panel,” Atway-Saleh said.

Norah Saleh added that she plans to vote again in the future.

— Eric Guzman

‘The woman’s turn’

Debbie Walker, 77, of Detroit, stepped out of Greater Grace Temple on the city’s west side just before noon on an Election Day that warmed up to bring sunshine, fall colors and a parade of candidate lawn signs to the driveway of the church.

Walker said she voted for Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield for mayor. “You know she’s always on the news doing something in the community for years,” she said. “She seems like a real go-getter.”

But Walker said she knows Sheffield is going to be under a microscope, if elected. “I hope she can withstand the pressure,” Walker said. If Sheffield is elected mayor, she would be the first woman to hold the job.

“Well, it had to come,” Walker said. “Now it’s the woman’s turn.”

— Clara Hendrickson

Southfield voter says voting ‘vitally important’

Constance Vickers, 76, was among roughly two dozen people to cast a ballot between 11 a.m. and noon at St. John Armenian Church in Southfield on Tuesday.

She was proud to vote: So proud in fact, she displayed her “I voted” sticker on her forehead.

“The way the world is operating today, it’s vitally important we all express our opinions through voting,” she said.

“We need to all come out and vote for representatives that express our views.”

— Dave Boucher

Detroit voter casts ballot for what he calls ‘positive change’

When Richard Gaut Sr., of Detroit, first arrived to Brewer Academy in Detroit late Tuesday morning, he quickly engaged a supporter of Solomon Kinloch Jr. who’d been passing out flyers with information about the mayoral candidate and pastor of Triumph Church.

Gaut, dressed in a black track suit with red pinstripes down the side and a white bucket hat, remarked that he appreciated Kinloch’s ability to give to the community without boasting. On his way out of the parking lot after casting his vote, he had an update: “He just got one more,” he shouted.

“I would like to see some positive change,” Gaut said. “More commerce, better jobs, affordable housing, reduction in crime — all the positive things that were mentioned by the candidates.”

Gaut said he believes Kinloch’s leadership abilities qualify him for the job as Detroit’s next mayor: “He came from nowhere to the position he’s in today and that’s a sign of a true leader in my opinion.”

— Lyndsay C. Green

Write-ins? No thanks, says this Southfield voter

Karen Taylor, 71, said she felt it was her duty as a responsible citizen to come vote at 11:30 a.m at the St. John Armenian Church in Southfield. She said she was less compelled to cast a ballot due to any particular issue — she likes Southfield, especially the police department — but wanted to ensure her voice was heard.

She said she declined to write in a candidate in the Southfield clerk’s race, where only the Republican’s name is on the ballot.

“I feel like write-ins are last minute,” she said.

— Dave Boucher 

Civic duty brings out the voters in Detroit

A slow but steady number of voters arrived throughout the morning at Detroit’s Northwest Activities Center. Retired former sales consultant Brette White flexed her civic muscle by voting for women wherever possible.

“I always vote,” White said. “It’s my duty. I’m a citizen.”

She said she voted for her city councilperson, Angela Whitfield Calloway.

“It was a toss-up for the mayor,” she added, “but I did vote for our current city council president.”

Also at Northwest Activities Center, Ashlee Cunningham, a young voter, spoke of “civic duty.”

“I voted for Mary,” she said of mayoral candidate Mary Sheffield. “I think the ability to be a part of history, her potentially being the first female mayor — I’m all about that!”

“I work in community development, so I’m really excited about what’s going to happen. I got a lot of questions about where the money is gonna come from but I’m excited for what happens next — especially in the neighborhoods.”

— Duante Beddingfield

In Dearborn Heights, voter cares about differences in city

Jim Smith, 45, of Dearborn Heights, left Annapolis High School submitting his ballot for the 2025 election around 10:20 a.m.

Smith, who grew up on the south end of city, moved back in 2023 after leaving for 10 years. He said he has noticed the despairing difference between the north side of town, by Telegraph Road and Warren Street, and where he lives.

He said he is concerned about rental properties and the impact that has on home values.

Smith didn’t comment on who he voted for but said that the candidate selected “seemed liked they cared” and “seemed to be favorable to the people” he talked to. His hope for this election is to have more representation for south Dearborn Heights.

“To me it’s like a double standard,” Smith said. “Why am I less … than the people in this neighborhood? They’re all my city mates.”

— Eric Guzman

Who did you vote for? ‘Ain’t none of your business’

Not everyone who cast a ballot in Detroit was eager to disclose who won their vote. Sharhondra Davis, an east-side Detroit native, said she hoped she “voted for the right person.” Although, she wasn’t going to say who.

“That ain’t none of your business, girl,” she told a Free Press reporter.

Davis said she’s hopeful that her vote went to the person who will make the changes the city needs “and make sure that we, as Coleman Young would say, get our city back. I see a lot of change that I don’t like and a lot of change I do like.”

Getting the right person in the role, she said, is needed to make everything right.

— Lyndsay C. Green

In Southfield, party official urges write-in for clerk

At Southfield City Hall, a steady stream of voters cast ballots on Tuesday.

There, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel handed out cards to as many voters who would take them. The card included instructions for how to write in the name of Wynett Guy, the Democratic candidate for clerk in Southfield.

The Republican on the ballot, Gabi Grossbard, was a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to overturn 2020 election results in Michigan. That person, Hertel said, can’t be clerk, adding that if elected, it would be “a disaster, not only for Democrats but democracy in general.”

— Dave Boucher

Detroit City Council race was a draw for one voter

While the mayor’s election is the marquee race in Detroit, Andrew Wright, 40, said the city council contest was what drew him to the polls.

He said he voted for City Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who faces a challenge from state Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit.

“She brings a very specific and needed energy to city council,” Wright said. “I think she’s what Detroit needs right now,” noting what he considers her more progressive policies and support for police mental health response teams.

— Clara Hendrickson

Detroit voter turnout forecast to be 18%-23%

Dueling mayoral campaigns tried to appeal to voters outside Maybury Elementary School, near Clark Park in southwest Detroit, passing out literature on adjacent corners.

Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey has forecast the city’s overall turnout to be between 18% and 23% of registered voters, with 60% to 70% of the ballots cast being absentee.

Evette Lindsey, 47, a first-time campaign volunteer, said she wanted to become “more involved” in the political process. She said she was drawn to support Mary Sheffield’s campaign for mayor because she seemed “more hands-on,” and she was not dissuaded by reports about campaign donors with questionable pasts.

Zion Norwood and Wilmer Almendarez, both 16 and students at Western International High School, sat in camp chairs, handing out leaflets supporting Sheffield’s rival, Solomon Kinloch Jr. Norwood said she worked on a Detroit Public Schools Community District campaign last year.

Norwood also said that her mother began attending Kinloch’s church.

Both teens added that they are eager to cast ballots when they’re old enough.

And Gabriel Guerrero, 44 and a regular Detroit voter, declined to tell which candidates he was voting for, but said he believes voting is “an obligation and a duty.”

— Nancy Kaffer

Residents take their civic responsibility seriously

Chris Sanders, 33, went to the polls at the Macedonian Cultural Center in Sterling Heights without getting sleep after getting off work at 5:30 a.m. He said he exercised his right to vote, something that Black Americans did not always have.

“I got one grandma left,” Sanders said. “When she was my age, she couldn’t vote.”

Many of the candidates seemed to sound alike, he told the Free Press, but he chose to vote for those who seemed like they had a policy agenda that would mean “what’s best for everybody, not a select group.”

Sidra Rao, who said she is a young Muslim woman, also voted at the center.

“You don’t see a lot of young people engaging with local elections,” she said. “I’ve lived my whole life in Sterling Heights and have seen how our city council and mayor really cater to majority white and older demographic.”

— Beki San Martin

Detroiter votes for economic progress to continue

Just before 9 a.m., Brendan O’Leary, 37, of Detroit, cast his ballot for Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield for mayor. The open mayor’s race drew him out to the polls but he said he and his wife try to vote in every election.

“I liked her policies,” he said of Sheffield. “I thought she did well in her city council position.”

O’Leary added he wants to see the development and economic progress that he said has been made over the last several years continue under her watch. His top priorities: growing the city’s tax base and creating job opportunities for Detroiters.

He also said he voted for incumbent District 6 City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero, adding that in his view, she’s done a good job and he sees no need to make a change.

— Clara Hendrickson

In Taylor, voter wants ‘younger people’ in office

Crystal and Daniel Roberts arrived at the Taylor Sportsplex at about 8:30 a.m.

Decadelong residents of Taylor, they said they appreciated the city’s improvements to Heritage Park — which Daniel Roberts, 49, refers to as “the center of the city” — during the past five years.

The couple said the park brought the community together.

But they also said there is a lack of local government transparency, creating tension between residents and city council leaders and an “uninviting atmosphere” at council meetings.

Crystal Roberts, 44, said she hopes that new city council members will bring more “open-mindedness” to the city.

“I think, she added, “getting some new people in here, fresh younger people that have a more open mind about things, and they’re not so stuck in their ways of thinking, will help us.”

— Eric Guzmán

Detroit mayor’s race framed by voter as consistency or change

At northwest Detroit’s Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, voters were trickling in by mid-morning. Among them was Van Johnson, who said he came out to cast his ballot for mayor “for Ms. Sheffield.”

“I want someone who will continue doing the good things Duggan has done for Detroit,” he told the Free Press, referencing outgoing Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “She has been there, the whole time, with him and those people and she knows how government works and what the people of this city need — from the sanitation workers in the alleys to the kids in the schools.”

He also shared his thoughts on Mary Sheffield’s opponent.

“Pastor (Solomon) Kinloch speaks to people from the outside,” he said, identifying himself as a former garbage collector for the city. “He can preach in that big ol’ church, but I don’t believe he’s ever been in an alley.”

— Duante Beddingfield

Voting for her pastor and a neighborhood focus

Lisa Dixon, a 57-year-old social worker, said she voted for the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. in the Detroit mayoral race after emerging from the voting booth at Detroit Lions Academy. She said she likes that he’s a political outsider.

“I feel like we just need to start with something new, something fresh,” she said.

He also is her pastor.

She said she wants city leaders to focus more on neighborhoods. On her street, she has had complaints about the crumbling sidewalk, but got no response from officials.

“I mean, I like downtown Detroit great,” she said. “But they need to come into the neighborhoods and look at folks like me. I work every day, take care of my property. Why can’t I get a phone call like ‘Hey, what’s the issue?’ “

— Clara Hendrickson

Mom hopes for a Detroit with safe places for kids

In Detroit, Kaissa Moon, 47, voted before taking her kids to school and then starting her workday.

She was bundled in a maroon puffy jacket and turtleneck at the Detroit Lions Academy. There, she turned to a friend she said shares her political views to help her make up her mind, before voting for Mary Sheffield for mayor.

Asked about her hopes for Detroit’s future, she said she wants to see continued growth, safe places for children to run around and an inclusive and welcoming city.

— Clara Hendrickson

In Taylor, a wife casts a ballot for her husband

At the Taylor Sportsplex on Telegraph Road, about 15 voters checked in to vote early Tuesday.

Among them was Courtney Czentnar, 42, who has lived in Taylor for nearly a year. She said that it was probably her first time voting in an election that was just for a city council race.

For city council, she said she voted for her husband, Dan Wallace.

She said she believes people should vote but added that she didn’t think there was generally enough information on local elections and wished that communities would better promote them.

— Eric Guzmán

Sterling Heights voter: Local elections matter

In Sterling Heights, Ryan Hahn, 24, who lives just down the street from Harwood Elementary, was one of the first voters to arrive after polls opened at 7 a.m. He came to vote, he said, because it was on his way to his manufacturing job.

There was no line to get in. The parking lot had just four cars.

He worried if he waited until after work, the polls would be closed.

Hahn said voting matters to him. He said he wasn’t particularly excited about any candidate or ballot measure but rushed to get there before work because local candidates and issues “are the ones that actually affect you.”

— Beki San Martin

Detroiter casts ballot, campaigns

On a crisp, fall morning Benjamin Hawn, 26, of Detroit, emerged from the Detroit Lions Academy after casting his vote for City Council President Mary Sheffield for mayor.

He said he hopes that after 12 years under Mayor Mike Duggan, the city can “keep the momentum going” and “focus on the neighborhoods and not just the business developments downtown.” He said he and his friends held each other accountable for voting in this year’s election.

As he spoke, he poured himself a cup of coffee and set up his lawn chair to settle in for a morning helping pass out some campaign literature for District 6 police commissioner candidate Garrett Burton and incumbent District 6 City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero.

— Clara Hendrickson

Major races in metro Detroit: Detroit, Hamtramck mayors

Detroit and Hamtramck have big races this year.

Detroit will select its next mayor with current Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield and pastor the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. as that two major candidates. Residents will also fill two open seats on Detroit City Council.

Hamtramck residents also have a mayoral race on the ballot. Other mayoral races to watch include Dearborn Heights, Pontiac, New Baltimore and Southfield.

What to watch in Detroit City Council

Along with a heated mayor’s race, there are two open districts seats and two at-large seats up for grabs on the Detroit City Council.

In District 5, Renata Miller, an Indian Village resident, faces Willie Burton, a commissioner on the city’s police oversight board. And, in District 7, Denzel Anton Hines-McCampbell and state Rep. Karen Whitsett are competing to replace current councilmember Fred Durhal III, who opted to pursue a bid for mayor rather than a second term on the council, but lost in the August primary.

Citywide, Detroit’s two at-large council members, Incumbents Coleman Young II and and Mary Waters, are running for reelection in a field that includes former City Council member Janee’ Ayers and James Harris, a community relations chief for the Detroit Fire Department.

When do polls close in Michigan?

Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Registered voters can cast a ballot as long as they’re in line at their polling place by 8 p.m. Election Day.

When will we see Michigan election results?

Detroit’s election results are expected to begin filling in around 9 p.m. Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said she is aiming to have them fully counted by 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Results for other local municipalities and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties can vary by location.

When results start to roll in, you can find them on Freep.com.

Michigan voter guide

If you want to know more about the candidates on the ballot, check out our 2025 voter guide.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Election Day 2025 updates as Michigan voters head to polls