The mayoral race in Hamtramck has seen a significant shift, nearly a year after the November 2025 election, following the tabulation of an additional 37 ballots. On Friday, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers counted these previously untabulated votes, which were discovered the day after the election. The updated count now indicates that former councilmember Muhith Mahmood is ahead of the sitting mayor, Adam Alharbi, by 12 votes.
Initially, Mayor Alharbi had been certified as the victor by a narrow margin of 11 votes in a December 2025 recount, securing 2,071 votes to Mahmood's 2,060. After the recent tabulation of the additional 37 ballots, the totals have flipped, showing Alharbi with 2,077 votes and Mahmood with 2,089 votes.
During public comment after the tabulation, Mahmood declared victory, stating, “I want to thank all those judges who did the proper judgement to bring these peoples’ rights to the table and get [their] vote counted.” He added, “It’s not about the winning and fighting about the win. It’s about the principle of the democracy of this country.”
Despite the new vote totals, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers will not immediately certify Mahmood as the winner. Rebecca Camargo, an attorney for Wayne County, clarified before the ballot tabulation began that a judge had issued an order preventing the board from certifying Mahmood as the winner. This injunction will remain in effect until a hearing is held in a separate legal challenge filed by Mayor Alharbi. The next hearing for this case is scheduled for October 22.
Mayor Alharbi’s legal challenge, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, alleges that Mahmood does not meet Hamtramck’s residency requirement, claiming Mahmood resides in Troy. Mahmood has denied this claim. Additionally, Alharbi, who also spoke during public comment, indicated plans to challenge the legitimacy of the recently counted ballots. He referenced past criminal charges for election fraud in Hamtramck and suggested that the circumstances surrounding the ballots’ discovery raised concerns about potential tampering. Alharbi stated, “Election integrity in Hamtramck is not trusted” and further asserted, “Those ballots are not trusted.”
These 37 ballots were initially discovered by then-City Clerk Rana Faraj the day after the November 2025 mayoral election. Court documents indicate that Faraj found a discrepancy between the number of absentee ballots returned and those that were counted. This led her to review absentee envelopes, which had been stored in her office overnight. During her review, Faraj identified 37 envelopes that had been opened but whose ballots had not been tabulated.
At the time of their discovery, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers declined to tabulate these ballots. According to Faraj, individuals who were not authorized election staff had entered her office while the opened envelopes were stored there, which she said violated an election integrity principle known as “chain of custody.”
Mahmood subsequently challenged the board’s decision in late 2025, requesting the Wayne County Circuit Court to order the ballots to be counted. While the circuit court denied his initial challenge, Mahmood appealed the decision and won, leading to a court ruling last month that mandated the ballots be counted. In its decision, the appeals court did note that the possibility remains open for individual ballots, once counted, to be contested through typical procedures for challenging improperly cast ballots.
City Clerk Rana Faraj was placed on leave shortly after the 2025 election and was later removed from her position. She has since filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.
