Janice M. Winfrey

Detroit City Clerk Janice M. Winfrey is a native Detroiter who has dedicated nearly two  decades of her life to tirelessly and carefully serving her community. When sworn into office  in 2006, Clerk Winfrey accepted the responsibility to govern three charter-mandated roles:  City Clerk, Official Record Keeper, and Chief Elections Officer. She also serves as Chairperson  of the Detroit Election Commission. 

Some of her greatest accomplishments as City Clerk to date are: 

• The establishment of the Detroit Archives and Records Management Division, which  ensures that all citizens and other interested parties have access to current and archived city  records. 
• A new state-of-the-art City Council agenda management system, allowing citizens greater  access to City government. 
• Successfully implemented five new state-of-the-art voting systems in the City of Detroit. 
• Established a precedent in the election community by being one of the first among the  eleven major cities in the United States to release 100% of election results by 11:00 p.m. on  election night during the 2006 election year. 
• Following the passage of Proposal 3 in 2018, which established no-reason absentee voting  in Michigan, Clerk Winfrey launched aggressive voter education and outreach efforts to  ensure Detroit voters understood the change in the law. The Detroit Department of  Elections became the first in Michigan to establish satellite absentee voting centers,  significantly reducing Election Day congestion and improving voter access. 
• Successfully administered the 2020 Presidential Election during the COVID-19 pandemic,  overseeing one of the most complex elections in Detroit’s history. Clerk Winfrey secured an  additional $7.2 million to recruit and train poll workers and expanded voting access through  twenty-two (22) satellite absentee voting centers and thirty (30) secure ballot drop boxes  across the city. Detroit processed and tabulated more than 174,000 absentee ballots,  helping produce a 51% voter turnout and ensuring the safe, secure, and transparent  administration of an election that drew national attention. 
• Procured and implemented the ReliaVote automated mail ballot system, a secure end-to end platform that manages the preparation, mailing, tracking, and processing of absentee 
• ballots. The system automates both outbound and returned ballot handling, strengthening  chain-of-custody procedures while improving the speed, accuracy, and transparency of  Detroit’s vote-by-mail operations. 
• Modernized and reorganized absentee voting operations and the Central Counting system  to accurately and efficiently process and tabulate absentee voters’ ballots. 
• Introduced electronic poll books and high-speed tabulators to guarantee balanced  counting boards. 

Clerk Winfrey is a graduate of Cass Technical High School, where she has been recognized  as a Distinguished Alumna, and she attended Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State  University. 

She is a member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers; the Association of Wayne County  Clerks; the Michigan Municipal Clerks Association; the International Association of Clerks,  Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers; the National League of Cities; and Alpha Kappa  Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She is also an active member of Greater Grace Temple.