Detroit-Area Clerk Blows Whistle On ‘Years’ Of Ballot Trafficking, While AG Meets With Alleged Fraudster
Voter fraud has been taking place in the Detroit-area suburb of Hamtramck “for years,” potentially affecting “hundreds of ballots,” the city clerk told The Federalist. She wrote Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel weeks ago imploring action, but heard “nothing” in response.
“That’s the only thing I can do, since there’s nobody else that helps me put a stop to them breaking the law,” Hamtramck City Clerk Rana Faraj told The Federalist. “It’s been ongoing for years, and nobody does anything about it.”
Meanwhile, Nessel was pictured meeting with Hamtramck Councilman Mohammed Hassan — who is accused of election fraud — at an event in Detroit on March 29, according to Facebook. The two discussed “local security issues,” according to an account of the event posted online.
The Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, once a Polish enclave, is now the only Muslim-majority city in America. The area elected an “all-Muslim government” in 2021. The city’s population is just more than 27,000, so Faraj said only a few thousand voters turn out for city elections. The clerk said she is “aware” of her surroundings, so she knows “exactly what’s going on in the community.”
“Harvesting ballots and dumping dozens, I want to say hundreds, of ballots at once into drop boxes — all in the same direction, all ‘glue-sticked’ the same way — it was obvious that it was all done by an individual or a group of people,” Faraj said. “When you’re collecting ballots and harvesting ballots, any amount of ballots is going to affect the race because it’s a smaller number of people voting. It affects it completely.”
Michigan law only allows “a member of the immediate family,” or a clerk upon request, to “mail or deliver a ballot” on behalf of the voter. So outside of these parameters, ballot harvesting is illegal.
Faraj said she is “hoping there’s still an ongoing investigation” into the fraud. Nessel’s office was interviewing community members last fall about potential fraud in the city’s 2023 city council race, according to the Hamtramck Review.
Wayne County court records show election fraud charges against two city councilmen, elected that year, and another unelected individual. Councilman Mohammed Hassan faced two charges of “impersonating another to vote at an election” and two charges of “absentee ballot tampering,” stemming from “alleged incidents” on Sept. 4, 2023, according to the Detroit Free Press. Councilman Muhtasin Sadman also faced one charge of “impersonating another to vote at an election” and two charges of “inducing unqualified voter to apply for absentee ballot,” related to “alleged incidents” on July 1, 2023.
Nessel’s office claimed to the Detroit Free Press that it “investigated the underlying facts,” and “special agents have submitted that warrant for a prosecutorial review but no decisions or charges have been filed.”
The Federalist reached out to Nessel’s office and Hassan for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Project Veritas captured Hassan and another city official on undercover video in the summer of 2024, agreeing to accept what they thought were boxes of “blank” ballots from immigrants, as The Federalist reported at the time. Hassan allegedly agreed to meet and said he could “drop” the ballots in a “box” at city hall.
‘Ongoing Election Integrity Issues’
Faraj wrote Nessel in March to express “frustration and deep concern about the ongoing election integrity issues here in Hamtramck, specifically involving a current City Council member who has repeatedly been accused of election fraud.”
“Throughout the 2023 City Council election, he consistently undermined my office’s efforts to carry out a fair election. He has even personally threatened me before every election, claiming he’ll continue winning elections and escaping any consequences regardless of the evidence against him,” Faraj wrote. “[N]othing significant has been done to hold this person accountable.”
Faraj said members of her office and city government gave interviews to Nessel’s investigators, adding that surveillance cameras even captured proof of ballot trafficking.
“They’ve captured clear evidence of suspicious activities, like multiple instances of large batches of absentee ballots being dropped into boxes at once, strongly suggesting a single individual rather than multiple legitimate voters,” Faraj wrote. “These incidents were properly documented and turned over to the authorities. Yet, this council member continues to act as though he’s above the law, openly bragging that no one can touch him.”
Former Hamtramck City Clerk August Gitschlag alleged that city officials were “bullying” voters into handing over ballots, then illegally trafficking them, as he told The Federalist last summer. He initially made the remarks in an undercover video by Project Veritas.
For years, Hamtramck has been grappling with election fraud. In 2014, four local men pleaded guilty to felony charges of improperly handling absentee ballots, which Gitschlag reported to authorities at the time.
When Faraj wrote Nessel last month, she urged action to protect the community’s elections.
“Our voters in Hamtramck deserve elections that are fair, transparent, and free from manipulation and intimidation. Continued inaction by authorities responsible for enforcing these laws sends a dangerous message that election fraud is acceptable here and that certain individuals are above accountability,” Faraj wrote. “The people and the press are watching.”
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
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