Controversial rightwing organization pulls a sting in Hamtramck

City Councilmember Mohammed Hassan (left) has been implicated in a scheme of ballot harvesting in the last council election. File photo

By Charles Sercombe
During the last city council election, there were widespread rumors and accusations about some candidates and their supporters performing ballot harvesting.
Now, those suspicions have taken an explosive new turn.
The far-right activist organization, Project Veritas, that some have accused of using underhanded tactics to produce misleading reports, has released a video of local city officials and candidates openly talking about the shady dealings some participated in.
On Monday, a video of the group’s findings was making the rounds on Facebook.
In the video, former Mayor Karen Majewski and former City Clerk August Gitschlag talked with the person producing the report but not knowing they were being recorded.
Both said that Councilmembers Mohammed Hassan and Abu Musa were working behind the scenes to get fellow Muslim voters to allow them to fill out their ballots and deliver them to city hall.
The city council and mayor are all-male and all-Muslim.
Former City Clerk Gitschlag is quoted saying:
“They go around the neighborhood with the AB (absentee ballot) applications, and they have people sign the application. They bully them and they give them their ballots. [They] say, ‘If you don’t vote for me your cousin has nowhere to live next year when he comes in.’ It’s ethnic communities… whoever gets here can run the show.”
Gitschlag helped in an investigation in a 2014 election where four Bangladeshi-Americans men were found guilty of a felony charge of ballot harvesting – which is an act involving a candidate handling ballots from those who are not related to them or living in their household and delivering them to city hall.
Unless someone is related to you or lives in your household, it is illegal to handle their ballot, such as take it to city hall or even to a mailbox.
Those involved paid a fine but did not serve any jail time.
In past former Mayor Majewski was frequently outspoken about the practice of ballot harvesting, and said in her interview that it was Bangladeshi candidates who started the practice and that it had been going on for 20 years.
“This is another thing that you can’t say out loud. The absentee ballots are being filled out in people’s dining rooms by the candidates,” Majewski said.
She added that she believes ballot harvesting caused her to lose her re-election bid for mayor to her then challenger Amer Ghalib, who had never held elected office.
Also interviewed were Councilmember Hassan and Musa
Hassan seemingly admitted to the practice, saying: “If everything’s good, we can drop [the ballots] to the City Hall. City Hall has that [ballot] box. We can drop it there.”
Musa was asked by the Veritas reporter if Hassan paid for 300 ballots.
Musa replied: “He, [Councilman Mohammed Hassan] said so. I don’t have any proof. He [Hassan] told, ‘Yeah, I did those things.’ If somebody properly, or unproperly handled the ballot, he’s the one.”
City Council candidate Lynn Blasey was also interviewed and said some who participate in harvesting, “hire black people to go to black houses. They hire Bangladeshi people to go to Bangladeshi houses. … They pay them for their ballots.”
She further said that harvested ballots are sometimes auctioned off in “midnight meetings” to the highest bidder.
At the Project Veritas website, they frame this action as part of a larger Democratic practice of widespread voter fraud, and that local “progressives face real problems as the issues of election integrity and cultural diversity appear to be colliding for Democrats in Hamtramck.”
In Hamtramck, the positions of mayor and city council are non-partisan. However, Hamtramck has long been a Democratic stronghold, although recently Muslim community leaders have been hinting that they are considering support for former President Trump in the upcoming presidential election.
There has been much talk in the community that agents from the state Attorney General’s Office were interviewing residents in the Bangladesh and Yemeni community about ballot harvesting.
The Attorney General’s Office did not return past calls to The Review to verify that investigation. So far, no charges have been filed regarding the election.
Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe has long been a lightning rod for controversy and how he conducts his investigations. Those who came under the spotlight of his hidden camera stings have pointed out that he selectively edits his reports.
In recent years, O’Keefe and Veritas settled a lawsuit over the group spreading false claims made by an employee of the Pennsylvania postmaster about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
O’Keefe was not part of the Hamtramck sting.
Over 60 claims of voter fraud alleged by Republicans about the 2020 presidential election have been rejected by various courts, some headed by former President Trump appointed judges for lack of evidence.
Since working here, Gitschlag has moved on to be city clerk for the City of Fraser.
Asked to respond to the sting interview, Gitschlag told The Review he “stands by” what he says.
“I am upset about the smarmy underhanded Project Veritas tactics to get information I have been telling people for a year,” Gitschlag said.
Former Mayor Majewski said:
“This has been common knowledge for years. But right wing news outlets look for opportunities to divide progressives while overlooking the real threats to election integrity coming from their own ideological supporters.”
Posted Aug. 9, 2024