A Michigan city councilman is at the center of an election scandal after a video surfaced allegedly showing him transferring bundles of absentee ballots just days before voters went to the polls.
The footage, recorded on Aug. 1, depicts Hamtramck Councilman Abu Musa in the passenger seat of a vehicle while passing what appear to be groups of absentee ballots to the driver.
The driver is later shown dropping multiple packets into a ballot collection box.
Michigan State Police have verified the recording’s authenticity, and the matter is now tied to an ongoing investigation into ballot handling in the city.
In a separate investigation by local news station WDIV, Musa is also alleged to appear in another video, sitting in the back of a truck at night while the driver tried to deposit multiple piles of absentee ballots into a drop box.
The timing was notable. Only four days later, Hamtramck held its Aug. 5 primary election, where Musa secured the top spot in a field of 12 candidates.
Unofficial results show he received 1,129 votes, including 843 through absentee ballots. His in-person total of 286 ranked just fifth among candidates on election day.
Concerns about Hamtramck’s elections had been building well before this incident.
Earlier in the year, two of Musa’s colleagues, Councilmen Muhtasin Sadman and Mohammed Hassan, were charged in connection to ballot forgery during the city’s 2023 races.
Prosecutors alleged they “conspired to receive unvoted absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized citizens” and then filled them out for their preferred candidates.
Musa and another council member, Mohammed Alsomiri, were named as under investigation but were not charged, the Daily Mail reports.
The fallout prompted Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to withdraw from the case, citing potential conflicts.
Nessel had previously drawn criticism for clashes with Hamtramck’s Muslim-majority council, including opposition to its ban on Pride flags on city property.
She also faced accusations of bias for her prosecutions of pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Michigan after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
With several defendants in the Hamtramck election case of Arab descent, Nessel turned the matter over to a special prosecutor.
Election officials had already raised alarms about absentee voting patterns.
“State laws are clear that your ballot should only be handled by you or a family member,” City Clerk Rana Faraj told Votebeat.
According to her office, some envelopes showed identical handwriting, and unusually large groups of ballots were being delivered together, both indicators of possible fraud.
Hamtramck, a city with more than 28,000 residents just outside Detroit, has been at the center of national attention since becoming the first city in the U.S. governed entirely by a Muslim-majority council in 2022.
The six-member council holds staggered elections, with three seats contested every two years.
Musa’s political affiliation has not been publicly disclosed, but many outlets have speculated that he is a Democrat.
Michigan itself remains one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.
In 2024, President Donald Trump narrowly won the state’s 15 electoral votes with 49.7 percent of the vote compared to Kamala Harris’ 48.3 percent.
Hamtramck’s political influence has grown as well: Mayor Amer Ghalib endorsed Trump in 2023, becoming the first Muslim-majority city mayor to back his campaign.
Trump later nominated him to serve as U.S. ambassador to Kuwait.
The emergence of the Musa video, combined with earlier fraud charges against other council members and reported irregularities with absentee ballots, has placed Hamtramck’s local government under heightened scrutiny and renewed concerns about election integrity in a pivotal swing state.
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Author: Gloriel Howard
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