Drop Box Camera Catches Ballot Stuffing In Michigan Town
The summary details allegations of election fraud in Hamtramck, Michigan, ahead of the august 5 primary election. Surveillance videos reportedly show individuals stuffing the city’s municipal ballot drop box with large stacks of ballots, violating Michigan law that restricts ballot drop-off to voters or close family members. An incumbent city council member, Abu Musa, appears to be involved, though his identity in the videos has not been officially confirmed and no charges have been filed against him. Michigan State Police are investigating the matter, which also involves questions about residency requirements for officeholders.
Several Hamtramck city councilors, including Musa and Mohammed Al-Somiri, where named in a previous 2023 election fraud case, though only others were charged. Investigations by Project Veritas allege ongoing illegal ballot harvesting and attempts to secure votes by improper means.
Hamtramck, with a population of about 28,000, became notable as the first U.S. city with an all-Muslim city council in 2015 but has faced repeated corruption scandals. Similar election fraud cases have occurred in other states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, often linked to ballot drop box stuffing.
The report argues that unsupervised ballot drop boxes facilitate fraud and that in-person voting is a more secure option. It highlights a push, including by former President Donald Trump, to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines in favor of paper ballots to safeguard election integrity.
In the days before the August 5 primary election in the troubled city of Hamtramck, Michigan, surveillance videos caught several people allegedly stuffing the municipal ballot drop box with suspicious ballots.
An August 1 video shows two men in a car handling stacks of ballots and placing them into Hamtramck’s drop box during the day. In another video, a pickup truck arrives at the drop box after dark with three people inside. The driver gets out of the truck and crams stacks of ballots into the box but has trouble because the box is so full.
Stuffing drop boxes while no one watching for cheaters is a recipe for election corruption. That is why President Donald Trump announced this week he will lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, which can be cast by using a drop box. Trump also wants to stop using voting machines and return to voting with paper ballots.
Big dumps of ballots are suspicious because Michigan election law allows ballots to be dropped off only by the individual voter, a member of the voter’s immediate family, or someone living in the voter’s home.
Local news reported that Abu Musa, an incumbent city council member who is up for reelection, appeared to be in both vehicles caught on video. But the identities of the people in the vehicles have not been confirmed by officials, and no charges have been filed.
Michigan State Police did confirm the videos are part of an ongoing investigation into election fraud related to residency of city counselors in Hamtramck, according to a report by WDIV TV Reporter Lauren Kostiuk. Michigan State Police did not respond to The Federalist’s request for information.
Musa received 1,129 votes, winning the primary with 13 percent of the vote. Residency is required to hold office as a city councilor. The weekly Hamtramck Review reports that Musa’s wife and two daughters live in another town, yet Musa says he lives in another home in Hamtramck and is not separated from his wife.
Musa and city councilor Mohammed Al-Somiri were named in a 2023 election fraud case but were not charged. Others named in that case are city councilors Muhtasin Sadman and Mohammed Hassan, who were charged last week for election fraud, specifically two felonies each: forging a signature on an absentee ballot application and forgery under Michigan’s election law, Michigan Public reported.
As Logan Washburn reported for The Federalist last year, investigative reporters at Project Veritas heard officials may be ballot harvesting and bullying people for their ballots in Hamtramck, so it investigated. Project Veritas contacted Musa and city councilman Mohammed Hassan and offered to connect them with blank ballots from immigrants who didn’t know how to fill them out, so the ballots would not go to waste. Neither man rejected the offer and both knew how to get the ballots counted.
The Phone Calls. #VotesForSale
Dozens of sources in Hamtramck, MI told Project Veritas that Muslim politicians are using illegal ballot harvesting operations to secure permanent power.
We contacted Hamtramck City Councilmen Mohammed Hassan and Abu Musa with an opportunity to… pic.twitter.com/XCbDBgPD3l
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) August 5, 2024
Hamtramck is in the greater Detroit metropolitan area and has a population of 28,000. It became the first city in the nation to have an all-Muslim city council in 2015. The city has been plagued with so much corruption that WDIV TV made a timeline highlighting recent problems within city government.
In a similar case in Pennsylvania, three Muslim members of the Millbourne Council Board pled guilty to election fraud and received prison sentences for preparing fake ballots and stuffing them in the drop box.
And in Wisconsin, hundreds of ballots were allegedly stuffed in a drop box, The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported.
Voting in person is the simple remedy to this kind of election fraud. As we see here, a surveillance camera is no deterrent to cheating. Municipalities that provide an unmanned drop box offer the means for corrupt individuals to vote more than once using fake or forged ballots. The U.S. managed to conduct elections without drop boxes and mail-in voting before COVID. For secure elections, we must stop providing this opportunity for fraud.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
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