Michigan
Michigan vote tabulation mostly complete: Which ballots are left to count
Election Day 2024: Michiganders say who they cast their vote for
Some voters in Ferndale and Royal Oak shared their reasoning for voting for former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.
Michigan’s top election official touted a successful 2024 election and said tabulation is mostly complete, earlier than it was four years ago.
There are, however, about 6,000 outstanding military and overseas ballots that will be added to the unofficial results if they are postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 12, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Wednesday during a news conference in Detroit. Although there were no significant and widespread counting issues, there was a hold up in uploading data onto Wayne County’s website late into Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning. The Bureau of Elections is working with the county to understand what happened, she said.
“Certainly for close races that exist, the biggest and most significant … outstanding chunk of votes is coming from those overseas ballots and I’ll mention it’s not a guarantee that all 6,000 will return by Tuesday,” Benson said.
With 98% of estimated votes counted, Donald Trump won Michigan, according to the unofficial tally from the Associated Press. Trump received 50% of votes, compared with 48% for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Benson said it was too early for her to predict what it means that Trump is heading back to the White House.
“There’s going to be a lot of conversations in the days ahead about next steps and what comes next,” Benson said. “But I see Michigan voters at this point, they’re very engaged and enthusiastic, perhaps have different opinions about the type of leadership they want to see but we see women continuing to win elections here in the states. We also see the issue of economics … being top of mind.”
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Michigan with 51% of the votes. Trump received 48% of the votes in the battleground state four years ago.
More than 5.5 million Michiganders voted. Currently, turnout on Election Day 2024 was about the same as it was four years ago as the department waits for other ballots, including overseas tallies, Benson said.
“This is our third straight election cycle where voters turned out in record numbers, and that’s what we’re seeing as a victory,” Benson said.
Benson said 2.2 million voted from home, casting absentee ballots; 1.2 million voted early in person, and more than 2 million voted in person on Election Day. Nearly 22,000 people registered on Election Day, with many in East Lansing, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Detroit, she said.
This year, Michiganders were allowed to vote early for the general election. Benson said her department expected half of the 1.2 million who showed up to vote during the early voting period.
“It was just a convenient option that people all around the state embraced. And that, to me, for us as election administrators, is really the biggest success story of this election,” she said.
Benson also said her department is aware of non-credible bomb threats that targeted polling locations in Washtenaw, Wayne, Genesee and Saginaw counties, which the FBI tied to Russia.
A couple hiccups in Macomb County
Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini said Wednesday morning there was a holdup with absentee ballot votes in Shelby Township. Just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, the county’s website did update with 100% of precincts reporting.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, Shelby Township had 20,137 absentee ballots returned. The township was not on the state’s list of communities to preprocess absentee ballots.
“This is an example of why should you pre-tabulate, run through your problems,” Forlini said. “When you’re a community like Shelby Township, it makes sense, even if it’s one day before.”
The township also is where Clerk Stanley Grot is among a group of Michigan Republicans criminally charged for allegedly participating in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Grot was among those charged last year by the state’s attorney general for allegedly signing a phony certificate pledging the state’s Electoral College votes to Trump.
Last year, the director of Michigan’s Bureau of Elections notified Grot that he could no longer administer elections, including registering voters and issuing ballots. He also directed the township’s deputy clerk to perform election duties until further notice or until Grot is acquitted or has the charges against him dismissed. The case is still open, according to online district court records.
Grot easily won reelection as clerk Tuesday as he had no Democratic opponent in the township, which leans Republican. All of the GOP incumbents seeking reelection in the township − supervisor, clerk and treasurer as well as the four trustees − won, per unofficial results on the county clerk’s website.
Forlini said there also was an issue with a memory stick with data from early voting in New Baltimore and those ballots, about 2,400, had to be rerun.
Forlini gave a “hats off” to Warren Clerk Sonja Buffa for getting results to the county in a timely fashion.
Buffa did not preprocess Warren’s absentee ballots, of which there were 25,439, per the Secretary of State’s website. He said Buffa, herself, brought in sticks with data, most of them about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. He said she made three trips “and we appreciate that.”
“People are waiting on these results,” Forlini said. “People want to know what’s going on. It’s about everyone who is waiting on information.”
There was concern from Warren city officials and others about Buffa’s decision not to preprocess the absentee ballots and about how quickly city election results would get to the county on election night, possibly holding up local, state and national results.
Forlini said he personally picked up sticks from Chesterfield Township as part of a program provided by his office and the sheriff in which a sheriff’s deputy and county clerk’s employee will go to municipalities and pick up sticks with data — in a secure process − and get them to the county’s election department in Mount Clemens.
Forlini said it’s difficult to be compared to other counties that can modem in election results. He said his staff uploaded results as soon as clerks countywide were done with them and got them to the county, the third most populous in Michigan.
Michigan
Birmingham police say massive pool party should have been shut down sooner
Police in Birmingham, Michigan, say officers should have shut down a massive pool party in a residential neighborhood sooner last weekend.
More than 100 people showed up for a party in the 300 block of Westchester Way on June 13, when city officials say a private residential pool was rented out to a third party, violating zoning regulations.
“While officers shut the party down and issued multiple citations, the department acknowledges the party should have been shut down earlier,” said Birmingham police Chief Scott Grewe in a social media post. “Protecting public safety and preserving the quality of life in Birmingham neighborhoods remain top priorities. Should an event require intervention in the future, there will be police supervision to ensure the orderly and safe dispersal of attendees.
Homeowners on Westchester Way told CBS News Detroit that the street was filled with cars and some intoxicated partygoers.
“Women, I don’t even know if they were wearing anything, thong bikinis on top of vehicles, twerking,” said homeowner Brian Homer.
Birmingham police confirmed the individual who rented the backyard over the weekend was a promoter. Police say the homeowner and the person who rented the pool were among those who received citations.
Residents told CBS News Detroit that the house has been hosting parties for years and that its pool is listed on Swimply for rent.
“This isn’t the first time; this has been ongoing. This is just the first time he got caught,” said a resident who shares a fence with the homeowner who is renting their pool.
During a Birmingham City Commission meeting Monday night, Birmingham Mayor Clinton Baller said that the city had failed in this case.
Homeowners who spoke with CBS News Detroit said they are concerned about their safety, given that the neighborhood is filled with children.
In April, three men were arrested and later charged in connection with a shooting at a short-term rental in the 1400 block of East Lincoln Street. According to police, a party was advertised at the rental home, and three 18-year-old men drove up to the property, where other teens were gathering, when an argument ultimately led to a shooting.
Michigan
Skateboarding legend conquers California, revisits Michigan roots
Meet Michigan’s own Skateboard Hall of Famer Bill Danforth
Grosse Pointe native and legendary skateboarder Bill Danforth talks about how it all began for him and how it continues across the country.
Warren — Skateboarders flew through the air at Macomb County’s Eckstein Skatepark, launching off concrete ramps as spectators looked on from the surrounding rows of vendor tents.
Punk rock music from a band on the Creative Grind Fest stage echoed across the park as veteran skateboarders — and a legend in the sport — stood alongside the youngest, offering help and encouragement. Among them was 4-year-old Nikky Bukobich, who said the first thing he learned on a skateboard was “to fall.”
Bill Danforth, a Grosse Pointe South High School graduate, surveyed the scene. With buzzed silver hair, limited edition Danforth Vans sneakers and a white T-shirt, the 60-year-old skateboarding trailblazer talked with fans and signed boards.
“Young skateboarders are the future of the sport, and will be able to carry it on long after we are not,” Danforth told The Detroit News. “You’re never done with skateboarding. But after we slow down, they got to keep that tradition going.”
Danforth returned to Metro Detroit last weekend as one of the newest inductees into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, making appearances at Royal Oak’s Modern Skate & Surf — which Danforth credits with keeping skateboarding alive in Michigan — and Warren’s Creative Grind Fest. As the skateboarding industry continues to grow, Danforth’s induction offers a look back at the figures who helped shape the sport’s early years.
Grosse Pointe meets California
Danforth was drawn to skateboarding as a Grosse Pointe youth when he realized it allowed him to express his creativity like no other sport did.
“I played organized sports when I was a kid. I played hockey, I played baseball, I played golf,” he said. “Skateboarding was unique, and it had no rules. We created our own groove.”
Danforth started skating wherever he could: “Most of it was at schoolyards or loading docks. This is before we were even building ramps.”
Then, in 1978, Detroit’s Endless Summer Skatepark opened in Roseville and Danforth began competing through the Great Lakes Skateboarding Association. These competitions drew attention to Danforth and other Midwest skaters from some of the largest industry groups on the West Coast, earning Danforth a sponsorship from Madrid Skateboards.
“We started getting recognized by California,” Danforth said. “All of a sudden we were sponsored by California companies — we’re getting free skateboards, we’re getting free wheels and we’re getting free components.”
‘Style is faster, more charged’
Art director and brand manager for Madrid Skateboards, Eagle Barber, said that Danforth stood out from others in the way he skated.
“His style is faster, it’s more charged. He was never an apprehensive, laid-back skater,” Barber said. “He was always going faster and bigger, and he had a very certain air of intimidation about him.”
Michigan professional skateboarder Garold Vallie, a close friend, added that Danforth was known for skating anything and everything.
“He could skate big halfpipes, but he could skate street,” Vallie said. “He could skate anything. He had his own style, and people gravitated towards that.”
Jerry Shirts, a skater and artist selling his spraypainted road signs at the festival, had often been inspired by Danforth’s tricks on the board, he said: “He was a big influence on me when I first started skating. I had seen him in the mags and such, and then realized he was from Michigan, so he was my favorite local skater. I copied all his tricks.”
Danforth was also unique simply for being a Michiganian. Todd Huber, founder and CEO of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said Danforth emerged from a region rarely associated with professional skateboarding.
“He wasn’t from California, and California kind of got the spotlight. He was from Detroit, no spotlight was on him,” Huber said. “He was cut from a different cloth, and he did things differently.”
Growing up in Michigan forced skaters like Danforth to be resourceful: “We had to fight a lot of issues just to be a skateboarder in Michigan. Nothing was given to us; we earned it out of our own blood, sweat and tears. We were skateboarders without attitudes in the Midwest. California was a bunch of attitudes with skateboards.”
‘The American Nomad’
The same determination that helped Danforth break into the sport also took him far beyond Michigan. Danforth flew, drove and hitchhiked across the world, skating any terrain he could find and earning him the nickname “The American Nomad.”
His journeys included a trip to Tahiti in the 1980s. Intended as a skateboarding clinic and demonstration tour, the trip turned into what Danforth called an unexpected adventure when political unrest erupted on the island. Danforth evacuated before continuing his travels through New Zealand and Australia.
Stories like these helped make him one of skateboarding’s most recognizable figures during the 1980s.
“He had the number one-selling board in the United Kingdom. He had one of the number one-selling boards in America,” said George Leichtweis, founder of Royal Oak’s Modern Skate & Surf. “And he would go anywhere with anybody in skating, and that’s a level of respect to the core of skateboarding.”
Memorabilia, renewed demand
Today, one of Danforth’s signature boards is part of the Smithsonian’s collection, alongside a copy of “Street Survival,” an instructional VHS video starring Danforth that helped teach a generation of skateboarders.
“He was definitely a really influential skater of the ’80s,” said Jane Rogers, a curator with the Smithsonian. “His board had a lot of cool elements — the graphic and the way the board was shaped. The circle of skulls definitely represents that time.”
Madrid Skateboards recently reissued several of his signature boards as part of a limited-edition collection. Only 200 of each design were produced, and the company said Danforth’s boards were the strongest sellers in its Gold Reissue Series.
Danforth has his own board company, American Nomad, where boards cost upwards of $95. Reissues or originals of Danforth’s signature boards can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, according to industry experts.
Such demand was visible during Creative Grind Fest. There, the Modern Skate & Surf tent reported strong interest in Danforth’s Hall of Fame commemorative deck, selling for $119, and his Madrid Misfit reissue boards, priced at $84.
“A big percentage of people are buying these things for the collectability aspect of it,” Barber said.
For many collectors, the boards represent more than a piece of equipment, skateboarding industry expert Iain Borden said: “To some extent, people are buying back the youth that they had.
“A lot of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s who can’t skate anymore, they’ve got injuries, they’re too heavy, they’re out of practice, but they still have this relationship to skateboarding that’s been a central part of their life. Board collecting is a way of keeping up that relationship.”
‘People can relate to Bill’
Danforth’s influence isn’t measured solely by the value of his memorabilia. Those who know him often point to his impact off the board as his most lasting contribution.
Danforth has spent decades mentoring younger skaters and supporting Native American skateboarding programs and Michigan skateparks, saying it is important to “share our knowledge with everybody”.
“People love Bill because people can relate to Bill,” said Creative Grind Fest organizer Bridget Harrington Renteria. “He’s great with kids, and he’ll talk to anybody. He’s got time for everybody.”
Among those eager to meet Danforth was 9-year-old Junior Wilie, whose admiration for the skateboarding pioneer was evident. With a photo of Danforth hanging on his bedroom wall, Wilie was excited to get his skateboard signed by him and other Michigan professionals. Wilie toted his skateboard around the park, darting in and out of vendor tents with his parents to find the perfect items.
Wilie wasn’t the only one eager to attend. Miguel Lynn rode his skateboard down into the concrete bowl before accelerating back up and over the rim. Lynn, who has been skateboarding for more than 20 years, said he was excited to learn Danforth would be attending the festival.
“He’s awesome. I look up to that guy,” Lynn said. “He’s been skating for so long, being that old, being able to skate, it’s amazing.”
Vallie was among the skateboarders mentored by Danforth. What began with drawing pictures of Danforth in class as a child eventually led to years of skateboarding and traveling alongside him.
“I think the term legend gets thrown around too much,” Vallie said. “But I do think he embodies every part of what that word encompasses — not only from his skateboarding accomplishments, but bringing skateboarding back to Michigan and helping kids.”
atisch@detroitnews.com
Michigan
Detroit Bar Misses James Beard Award, Leaving MI Without Any Winners
Chartreuse Kitchen and Cocktails is best known for its farm-to-table American cuisine. It has earned numerous accolades, including Yelp’s No. 1 Detroit restaurant in 2017 and 2018.
Freya, known for its prix fixe tasting menus typically served with wine, has also earned high praise, including a spot in the New York Times’ most exciting restaurants list.
The 20 chefs will headline events in their hometowns as part of the foundation’s Taste America culinary tour, which begins Sept. 16 in New Orleans and continues in cities across the country through March 2027.
The foundation said the chefs were selected not only for culinary talent but also for their work beyond the kitchen, including efforts such as supporting sustainable agriculture, investing in restaurant teams, elevating quality ingredients and advocating for a stronger food system.
Chefs in Houston, New York, Detroit, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, Los Angeles and New Orleans are among the 20 to watch.
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