This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
Nearly a year after voters cast their ballots in a local mayoral election, a new candidate has taken the lead after 37 disputed ballots were finally counted.
Adam Alharbi became the mayor of Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb of about 28,000, after last year’s election results showed him defeating Muhith Mahmood by just 11 votes. But those results did not include 37 absentee ballots that were mistakenly excluded from the initial count.
Now, after a prolonged court battle, those ballots have been counted and it appears Alharbi will have to leave office — although he says he will contest the new result. He is also challenging if Mahmood can hold office at all, alleging his opponent doesn’t live in city limits.
The new count, conducted at a meeting of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers on Friday, shows that Mahmood won 2,089 votes while Alharbi won 2,077. One of the 37 questioned ballots was for a write-in mayoral candidate.
Cheers erupted during the meeting when Mahmood, who it is believed would be the city’s first Bangladeshi mayor (Hamtramck has a significant Bangladeshi population), was named the unofficial winner.
“It’s not about the winning and fighting for the win,” Mahmood told the canvassers, thanking the board for its work. “It’s about the democracy in this country and voter rights.”
He encouraged Alharbi, who is a member of Hamtramck’s large Yemeni American community, to work with him to unify the city.
Addressing the board, Alharbi said he was not surprised by the result, alleging malfeasance. He claimed that a number of ballots had originally been filled out for him before being “erased” and his opponent chosen instead.
He also referred to past allegations of ballot harvesting in the city.
“Election integrity in Hamtramck is not trustworthy,” he said, adding that he would request a recount.
Friday’s tabulation was months in the making. It all started after Election Day 2025, when election officials discovered the 37 ballots in question, sitting open (but still in their envelopes) in the clerk’s office. At the time, canvassers expressed concerns over whether the ballots were still valid after learning that a number of city officials had walked into the clerk’s office while the ballots were there. That entry broke the ballots’ chain of custody, leading canvassers to deadlock on a vote to count them. As a result, the ballots were excluded from the certified results.
But last December, Mahmood sued to get the disputed ballots, which remained sealed until Friday, counted. A circuit court judge initially ruled the ballots should not be counted, and Alharbi took office in January. But in March, an appeals court overturned that decision, and the Supreme Court of Michigan declined to take the case in August. That laid the groundwork for Friday’s tabulation, although it took nearly two more months for the case to make its way back through the lower courts before the final order to tabulate the ballots finally came through Oct. 9.
It’s not immediately clear how Hamtramck might go about switching leaders or what restitution, if any, might be in store for Mahmood’s lost year as mayor. His attorney, Mark Brewer, said he would be speaking with Mahmood before making any additional decisions.
It’s also not clear if there will be a challenge to the legitimacy of the actions Alharbi took as mayor. Hamtramck has a weak mayor system, meaning the city manager handles most of the daily operations of the city and the city council makes many major decisions, but the city has implemented a number of new ordinances in the 10 months Alharbi has been in office.
It’s also unknown when, or even if, Mahmood could take office. Becki Camargo, a lawyer for Wayne County, said the mayoral results could not be certified Friday due to a pending court case regarding Mahmood’s residency and whether he is eligible to take office. Alharbi asserts that Mahmood lives in Troy, not Hamtramck.
Other races on the ballot — none of which were close enough for 37 votes to change the final result — were certified.
The pending residency case is expected to be heard next week, Camargo said, but a decision may not be issued right away. Camargo suggested the certification for the mayoral election could stretch into the canvassing for the November midterm election.
Michigan election law dictates that recounts cannot be requested until certification is complete, meaning the resolution is likely to take at least a few more weeks.
Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org.
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