Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey
Breaking news: Counting the votes after Tuesday's primary election might be a mess.
You're surprised, I know.
According to the Detroit Free Press, a large number of write-in votes are expected this year, which could slow down official election announcements for up to two weeks.
The city clerk's office, which couldn't really figure out if Mike Duggan could run in the first place, will have to determine whether write-ins were intended for Mike Duggan, the former head of DMC who filed his papers too early and was forced to run as a write-in candidate, or Mike Dugeon, the barber who announced his write-in candidacy last week on Fox 2 because he wants free Subway sandwiches and his name is spelled a lot like Duggan's.
So on election night, the city clerk’s office will report to the public the tally of votes for Duggan, Dugeon or variations of those names — Dugon, Dugan, Duggen and the like — but then it’s up to the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, a four-member group appointed by the County Commission, to determine whether certain spellings are awarded to one candidate or the other.
It's the Board of Canvassers part that could take a while.
Deadline Detroit plans to live blog starting at 7 a.m. on Election Day and ending whenever there is no news left to report. Hopefully this will be before the two-week counting period.
