Breaking news … Mayoral election is still a close one but is it over?

Mayoral-elect Adam Alharbi is still the winner in the mayoral election, but there will likely be legal challenges.

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck mayor-election Adam Alharbi is still the winner of the mayoral election.
That is the determination of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers after the city’s ballots were retabulated – including 120 absentee ballots that needed to be “cured” first.
According to Wayne County election officials, Alharbi beat his opponent, Muhith Mahmood, by just six votes — narrowing his initial victory down from 11 votes.
Although the official count is settled for the moment, this mayoral election appears to be far from over.
It is likely that the matter will now head to court, and at the very least it’s also likely that there will be a recount of the ballots.
Prior to the county finalizing the election, Alharbi filed a lawsuit to prevent Mahmood from taking office. Alharbi was calling for Mahmood to be disqualified from holding elected office here, saying that an internal city investigation revealed that Mahmood is not actually a resident.
Mahmood denies that allegation, and has not been charged with being a non-resident.
Mahmood has also retained an attorney to help secure his victory as mayor.
No matter who is finally crowned the winner, this election and its aftermath have resulted in plenty of accusations of election fraud being made by both candidates.
On social media, Alharbi said of Mahmood:
“We are now pursuing felony charges for candidates who lied about their residency to steal a position. If you don’t live in Hamtramck, you will be removed from the ballot, removed from office, and charged for your crime.”
Mahmood countered:
“A hypocrite has no place in our community. You can’t shout about ‘voter fraud’ and spread lies while casting hundreds of votes for people who are in Yemen or outside the country — and even exchanging ballots at your own dining table. What a complete joke.”
As for the “cured” ballots, there were 150 absentee ballots that either had no voter’s signature, or the voter’s signature did not match what was on file.
Apparently, 30 of those original 150 voters either didn’t clear up the matter with the city clerk’s office on time, or else they failed to rectify their ballot. That left 120 ballots to be counted.
But there was also another matter in this election that had so many layers of complexity.
Some 37 ballots – separate from the 150 unsigned/non-matching signature ballots — were found to be not counted at all, although the reason for this is not entirely clear. City Clerk Rana Faraj told the Wayne County Board of Canvassers:
“Now, many times, we have older machines. There’s a lot of jams. So, we weren’t sure what the issue was. We looked around,” she explained. The next day when we were retaining the envelopes is when one of my clerk’s realized that there were still ballots inside of the envelopes.”
Faraj has since been placed on paid administrative leave, and there is an open question why over 20 unauthorized people were allowed in her office where the uncounted ballots were located.
Those 37 ballots were discussed last week by the Wayne County Board of Canvassers.
The four board members, two Democrats and two Republicans, were tasked with deciding whether to count the 37 ballots. After two days of passionate public input, the board split 2-2, with the two Democratic members voting to count them but the two Republican members against doing so.
The reason the ballots should not be counted, the Republican boardmembers said, was because they were left in an unsecured area of the city clerk’s office, thus exposing the ballots to possible tampering.
Democratic members of the board argued that not counting the ballots would disenfranchise those 37 voters.
The tie vote meant that the ballots could not be counted. That begs the question: would those 37 uncounted ballots have swung the election results in Mahmood’s favor.
Posted Nov. 18, 2025