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Nearly a year after voters cast their ballots in the local mayoral election, a new candidate has taken the lead after 37 contested ballots were counted.
Adam Alharbi became mayor of Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb of about 28,000, after last year’s election results showed him winning over Muhith Mahmood by just 11 votes. But those results don’t include 37 mail-in ballots that were mistakenly excluded from the initial count.
Now, after a lengthy 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 also questions whether Mahmood can hold the position, alleging that his opponent does not live within the city limits.
The recount, taken Friday at a meeting of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, shows Mahmood won 2,089 votes while Alharbi won 2,077. One of the 37 contested ballots was for a write-in candidate for mayor.
(Sylvia Jarrus for Votebeat)
Cheers erupted at the meeting when Mahmood, who would be the city’s first Bangladeshi mayor (Hamtramck has a large Bangladeshi population), was named the unofficial winner.
“It’s not about winning and fighting for victory,” Mahmood told canvassers, thanking the board for its work. “It’s about democracy in this country and the rights of voters.”
He encouraged Alharbi, who is a member of Hamtramck’s large Yemeni American community, to work with him to unify the town.
Addressing the board, Alharbi said he was not surprised by the outcome, alleging malfeasance. He claimed a number of ballots were initially filled out for him before being “erased” and his opponent chosen in his place.
He also addressed previous allegations of ballot harvesting in the city.
“The integrity of the elections in Hamtramck cannot be trusted,” he said, adding that he would request a recount.
Friday’s count took months. It all started after Election Day 2025, when election officials discovered the 37 ballots in question, opened (but still in their envelopes) in the clerk’s office. At the time, canvassers expressed concerns about the validity of the ballots after learning that a number of city officials had entered the clerk’s office while the ballots were there. This entry broke the chain of custody of ballots, leading canvassers to run into an impasse during vote counting. As a result, the ballots were excluded from the certified results.
But last December, Mahmood sued to have the disputed ballots, which remained sealed until Friday, counted. A circuit court judge initially ruled that the ballots should not be counted, and Alharbi took office in January. But in March, an appeals court overturned that decision, and the Michigan Supreme Court declined to take up the case in August. That laid the groundwork for Friday’s counting, although it took nearly two more months for the case to return to the lower courts before the final order to count the ballots was finally issued on October 9.
It is not yet clear how Hamtramck might go about changing leaders or what compensation, if any, might be in store for Mahmood’s lost year as mayor. His lawyer, Mark Brewer, said he would speak with Mahmood before making any further decisions.
It is also unclear whether the legitimacy of actions taken by Alharbi as mayor will be called into question. Hamtramck has a weak mayor system, meaning the city manager runs most of the city’s day-to-day operations 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 is also unclear when, or even if, Mahmood might take office. Becki Camargo, Wayne County’s attorney, said the town hall results could not be certified Friday because of a pending court case regarding Mahmood’s residency and eligibility to take office. Alharbi claims that Mahmood lives in Troy and not Hamtramck.
The 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 made immediately. Camargo suggested that certification for the mayoral election could extend to canvassing for the November midterm elections.
Michigan election law says recounts cannot be requested until certification is complete, meaning the resolution will likely 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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