Public outrage grows over election violations
The resurfaced allegations of the illegal handling of ballots by elected officials was obviously the talk of town this past week.
And it has people rightly ticked off.
There have long-been rumors and allegations of ballot harvesting by some elected officials and candidates. These allegations have tainted a number of Hamtramck elections.
Several years ago, four men were convicted of illegally handling absentee ballots, so there is legitimacy in suspecting the worse.
Unfortunately, in that previous matter, a judge merely slapped the wrists of the offenders, letting them off with small fines and a chance to clear their felony conviction after a few years, provided they behave.
That was a missed opportunity for nipping this activity in the bud right then, and for sending a strong message to other would-be cheaters.
What particularly upsets folks is, that this is Third-World-type political corruption, making Hamtramck into a laughing-stock — except no one is laughing.
Having said that, the six people who are the subject of these recent allegations are presumed innocent until convicted. As of now, the state attorney general is looking for a special prosecutor to file the charges.
So far, word from the attorney general’s office is that the search is ongoing.
With this being an election year, you can bet that there will be heightened attention to possible election law violations. What puzzles us is, why do people cheat to get elected here?
What’s in it for them?
Certainly, it can’t be for the measly few thousand dollars a councilmember receives each year.
Is it really about a supposed perception of prestige?
What a joke.
No one is impressed that you are a member of the Hamtramck City Council. No one.
In fact, if you take the job seriously, it’s more work than it’s worth.
The bottom line is, if there is a prosecution, and there are convictions, the court owes it to the public to dole out meaningful punishment – and yes, we’re talking prison sentences.
Only something that harsh will make more would-be cheaters take a closer look at the possible consequences of such actions.
It’s time to end this nonsense.
Posted April 18, 2025
One Response to Public outrage grows over election violations
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Mark Koroi
April 20, 2025 at 12:06 pm
I have several issues with respect to the state investigation of alleged voting irregularities in Hamtramck:
(A) the Michigan Department of Attorney General as a policy when I dealt with them will would not identify investigative targets absent the filing of criminal charges against those individuals, but in this matter have specifically identified six persons in a request to the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council (PACC)to have a special prosecutor appointed;
(B) the six persons named in the PACC request do not align with the same persons initially identified in the Wayne County Circuit Court records – those were three individuals and only two of those three are identified in the PACC request – hence four new individuals were added to the PACC request and one dropped – all without explanation from the Michigan Attorney General
(C) it defies explanation why Dana Nessel’s office would have her own investigators develop a case of Election Act violations against local citizens and present it for review to one of her assistants to consider arrest warrant authorization when the grounds for recusing her office cited in the PACC referral were known long before the investigation was concluded;
(D) Rana Faraj has publicly stated that the investigator in charge of the criminal election matter was removed because he discovered violations – there is no factual basis on her source for that statement and one wonders how such an internal personnel matter would be known to an outside government official such as the Hamtramck City Clerk
(E) it would be interesting for a Freedom of Information Act request to unearth internal communications of the Michigan Department of Attorney General that would shed light on the deliberative processes of the officials that decided that the matter should referred to PACC for reassignment consideration.