DETROIT – The polls are open and both candidates for Detroit mayor have cast their ballots.
Michigan November General Election 2017: What you need to know
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Incumbent Mike Duggan is being challenged by state Sen. Coleman Young II for Detroit mayor in an election in which fewer than a fifth of the city's 470,000 registered voters are expected at the polls. Only 13 to 18 percent voter turnout is expected for Tuesday's general election, according to city elections officials.
Duggan cast his vote at about 7:30 a.m. at the River House Apartments on East Jefferson Avenue.
“I’ve worked really hard for the last four years and in about 12 hours I’m going to be getting a report card from the people I work for,” Duggan said at the polls.
Young cast his ballot at about 9 a.m. at the Butzel Family Recreation Center on Kercheval Avenue.
“Voters should shade in my name on that ballot because I’m unbought and unbossed, my back isn’t bent, it’s not meant to be ridden,” Young said after casting his vote. “If you want someone that’s going to fight against injustice, fight against these insurance companies and not get in bed with them, vote Coleman Alexander Young.”
Duggan, who was first elected months after a state-appointed manager filed for Detroit's historic bankruptcy, is seeking a second four-year term against Young whose iconic father, Coleman A. Young, was Detroit's first black mayor.
In the nonpartisan August primary, Duggan got more than 67 percent of the vote to Young's nearly 27 percent. Duggan received endorsements from prominent labor groups and clergy, and even the influential Black Slate that helped get Coleman A. Young elected in 1973.
WATCH: Full Detroit Mayoral Debate with Mayor Duggan and Sen. Coleman Young II
Duggan, a former chief of the Detroit Medical Center, was first elected in 2013 and became the first white mayor in the city since 1973. Detroit is more than 80 percent black.
Earlier in 2013, a state-appointed manager filed for Detroit's bankruptcy. Duggan had limited power over city finances and other operations in his first year in office, but he and the City Council eventually regained control after Detroit's December 2014 bankruptcy exit.
The bankruptcy allowed Detroit to restructure or shed billions of dollars in debt.
Under an aggressive blight removal plan and using primarily federal funds, more than 10,000 vacant houses have been torn down over the past four years. Duggan also has worked with banks and foundations on home-buying and renovation programs to improve Detroit neighborhoods.
But Coleman Young II has criticized Duggan, saying some of Detroit's poorest neighborhoods have yet to get better.
Young, who had been a state representative, was elected to the Michigan Senate in 2010. He ran unsuccessfully in a 2009 special mayoral primary to complete the second term of convicted ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick served as mayor from 2002 to 2008. He resigned in disgrace as part of a plea deal in separate perjury and assault cases.
Coleman A. Young, who first took office in 1974, served 20 years as mayor. He decided not to seek re-election after 1993. He died in 1997.