Brielle Meyer

After protests broke out at the venue during the 2020 elections process, they upped their security this time around.

^{Photo credit: WZZM 13}

Note: This is a story I wrote on Nov. 5, 2024 (election night) for WZZM 13. This story was a collaborative effort between Reporter Julia Gorman and myself as Julia was on scene at the polling location and feeding information back to me at the station. We also pulled information from an Associated Press report from the 2020 election. The original can be found here.

DETROIT — After chaos erupted surrounding the 2020 election at Huntington Place, formerly the TCF Center in Detroit, 13 ON YOUR SIDE visited the vote-tallying venue on Election Day 2024 and noted the increased police presence.

The Associated Press (AP) reported in 2020 that protests began at the venue the day after Election Day, shortly after the AP declared that current President Joe Biden had won the state of Michigan.

After that declaration, the AP reported that dozens of Donald Trump supporters descended on the center, chanting, “Stop the count!”

On that day, local media shot video of the angry crowd as police officers lined up to keep them from entering the counting area.

Earlier that day, the Republican campaign had filed a suit to try to stop the counting of votes. They demanded that Michigan’s Democratic Secretary of State allow in more election inspectors. Trump himself was insisting, without evidence, that there were major problems with the voting and the counting.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, countered Trump’s insistence by reassuring voters that both parties and the public had been given access to the tallying “using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately.”

The TCF Center wasn’t the only place that saw protests during the elections process in 2020 as protests had broken out across the country.

This time around, though, police vehicles surrounded the large building in Detroit. And upon entering, uniformed police officers were at every turn. Metal detectors were in use and many outside doors were locked.

Spokesperson for Detroit Votes, Matt Friedman, which works in partnership with the City of Detroit Clerk’s Office said, “It’s very secure, and it’s really the appropriate place to do ballot counting where security is such an imperative.”

As of 5 p.m., Friedman said the location had processed and tabulated 89,000 absentee ballots from Detroit voters. He said that a total of 92,000 absentee ballots from Detroit voters had been received.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.