On the campaign trail … Tidbits of this and that from the election

City Councilmember Abu Musa was the top vote-getter in the recent election. He had some choice words for a certain voter, although not the voter in this photo.

By Charles Sercombe
This year’s election is now fodder for various media outlets, and now the courts.
Media attention and public outrage are not going away.
As we reported in this issue, there is a possible scandal brewing.
But besides all that attention, last week’s election once again underscored how voters have turned to using absentee ballots (AV) instead of voting in person.
Or maybe it’s more like it’s the candidates who are dependent on AV ballots, as some suspect — for nefarious reasons.
Out of the 4,509 ballots cast in last week’s mayoral election, only 1,575 were from voters actually voting in person. The rest were via absentee ballots.
In the city council election, 3,023 AV ballots were cast out of a total of 4,624 ballots.
That trend has been increasing in recent years, and it has also resulted in accusations of ballot harvesting by some candidates and their supporters.
Mayoral candidate Muhith Mahmood came in with the most absentee ballots with 1,501. His supporters who went to the polls numbered at 497.
At this point, Mahmood lost the election by a hair — 11 votes.
But that may change after Wayne County retabulates the ballots.
Alharbi garnered 1,203 votes from absentee ballots. Those voting in person for him totalled 806 people.
The issue of using absentee ballots has become a national debate, with President Trump seeking to end voting by this method despite his own history of voting by absentee ballot.
Last week’s election also saw some vocal flare-ups outside polling stations. They seemed to focus primarily on an independent journalist whose prior writings many took issue with.
Most of the verbal exchanges were in Arabic, but the journalist was accused of “fake news” – a trademark rebuttal President Trump evokes when confronting reporters who he deems hostile.
The term “fake news” is apparently now in the national lexicon for good.
Another, um, interesting encounter on election day occurred between a voter and Councilmember Abu Musa, who ended up being the top vote-getter – as he was in the August Primary Election.
The voter recorded his encounter with Musa, a copy of which The Review obtained, about allegations of his ballot harvesting. A city hall security camera aimed at a ballot drop box during the primary election recorded Musa in the passenger seat of a car, handing over what appeared to be bundles of absentee ballots to the driver.
The voter in question was direct in asking Musa: “You have no shame stuffing a ballot box?”
Musa responded: “Do you know who you are talking to? You piece of s—.”
Musa also repeatedly told the voter to “cover your face,” before calling him a you-know-what a few more times.
It should be noted that Musa has not been charged with ballot harvesting — or any other type of election fraud, for that matter.
However, it is alleged, in a city-sponsored investigation, that Musa actually lives in Warren with his wife and family.
Musa insists he lives in Hamtramck, but that he does visit his family in Warren, and that he is not divorced or separated from his wife. In the past, he has invited the public to visit him at 11441 Mitchell if they had any doubts he lived in the city.
Speaking of residency, the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office told WXYZ Channel 7 news that it is expanding its election fraud investigations from previous years, and, according to Channel 7, charges are expected to filed any day now.
According to sources knowledgeable about the matter, Monroe County is only going after two witnesses to failed to show up for Councilmember Muhtasin Sadman’s preliminary examination where he was charged with ballot harvesting.
Monroe County was tapped by Attorney General Dana Nessel to take over her department’s investigation in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest since she is Jewish and those involved in the election fraud allegations are Muslim.
Moving on to mayoral candidate Mahmood, what he posted on social media before the election could possibly come back to haunt him.
“Together, let us elect a leader who embodies the values of experience, dedication, and transparency — someone who has consistently demonstrated a commitment to serving the people,” he said.
Mahmood is also alleged to actually live outside of Hamtramck, in this case with his family in Troy. He has admitted that his wife and children live there, while insisting that he lives in Hamtramck.
He has not been charged regarding his residency.
The residency issue begs the question about what would drive these folks to voluntarily live apart from their families just to serve in elected office in little old Hamtramck.
What’s the allure? Certainly, it can’t be the paltry few thousand dollars they receive each year as a stipend. Or is it the “prestige” or “honor?”
The Review welcomes all serious and non-serious replies.
Back to last week’s election.
So far, at least as things stand now, the city has two new councilmembers.
It might be a bit misleading to say that Nayeem Choudhury, who came in second in the election, is “new” to the council. He had served before but then lost his re-election bid four year ago.
It’s also been alleged that Choudhury has ballot harvested in the past, although no criminal charges were ever filed.
And coming in at third is a newcomer, Yousef Saed, who is an immigrant from Somalia who speaks Arabic.
We don’t know too much about him, but he says he is self-employed, and he is a member of the city’s Planning Commission.
On Facebook, one of his supporters, Khaled Al, said this about Saed:
“Saeed’s victory is a victory for all the voters of our community who gave him their votes. He is one of us and our brother, and there is no difference between him and the other candidates. Also, Saeed is a character that represents diversity in running for elections. Being one of the members of the Somali community, whose number of people in Hamtramck is not very high.”
The Review reached out to him for comment, but he has not responded.
As it stands now, the mayor and city council will remain all-male and all-Muslim.
Finally, city council candidate Joe Strzalka, who ran as a write-in candidate in this election and served on council in the 1990s, had this advice (warning?) for the new mayor, whoever that may ultimately be, and the city council:
“Our city faces some extreme challenges, and hard choices need to be made. While we currently have a rainy day fund, that fund is projected to disappear within four years. That four-year projection, however, did not take into consideration losing over a million dollars from the closing of the jail, a $200,000 loss from parking meter revenues, a cut to state revenue sharing funds, cutbacks at the GM plant, a $500,000 investigation of the police chief and city manager, and any payouts from pending lawsuits.”
Posted Nov. 14, 2025