Warren city clerk delivers timely election results

WARREN — Elected officials encouraged Warren city clerk Sonja Buffa to deliver the results of the Nov. 5 election in a timely manner, and she did.

The flash drives which contain all the voting information are required to be delivered to the county clerk after the polls close. In an attempt to expedite calling the election results, the city clerk was encouraged by Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini and Warren City Council members to deliver the flash drives which are also referred to as “sticks” to the county before doing the paperwork.

“This is my Super Bowl,” Buffa said about the general election. “I am proud of what we do and the amazing staff.”

Buffa, with the help of her staff, delivered the majority of the flash drives to the county around 1:00 a.m. Nov. 6. The two remaining sticks were delivered at about 3:00 a.m. and the paperwork was delivered before 6 a.m. Buffa said.

“She did a fantastic job,” Forlini said. “She did it differently than she had done in the past when she would wait until all the paperwork was done, then she would bring it (the flash drives) in.

“This time she personally brought in a good amount of sticks around 1 o’clock in the morning, and that was the first download,” Forlini said.  “And people can start to get a feel (of the results) and we got off of zero which is good.”

According to Forlini, more sticks were delivered a couple of hours later, and Buffa’s paperwork was in by 4:30 a.m.

“I’m thankful she did it that way because people got a feel earlier, otherwise they would have had to wait until 4:30 a.m. to hear something from Warren,” Forlini said.

Buffa requested a special meeting with Warren City Council to approve the spending for a high-speed ballot tabulator for the general election that costs more than $140,000, or to rent the machine for $40,000. The meeting was held at 6 p.m. Oct. 28. The request to purchase the machine was taken off the agenda 90 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to take place and replaced with the request to rent the machine. There was not enough time to put the rental option on the agenda. Therefore, council members could not vote on either option. Buffa was not present at the meeting but sent Deputy City Clerk Lisa Diolordi on her behalf, which is allowed by the city charter.

“I didn’t have a lot of support from a lot of people,” Buffa said. “I was dragged by some people unnecessarily.”

Buffa went to every precinct in Warren on Election Day.

“Everyone was excited, I could feel the energy.  I had fun interacting with the staff, voters and the people at the polls, Buffa said. “Warren has a lot of great people.”

Without the new machines, the voting process went smoothly and results were delivered in a timely manner, according to Buffa.

“She ran a great election and I expected her to,” Forlini said.

“Never underestimate Warren,” Buffa said.

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