37 disputed ballots in Hamtramck election should be counted, court rules, potentially leading to new mayor

“Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here. In the latest twist in the dramatic and contested election for Hamtramck mayor , the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that 37 disputed ballots should be counted, potentially reversing the outcome of the election almost three months into the new mayor’s term. Adam Alharbi narrowly won the November 2025 election for mayor of the small Detroit suburb by just 11 votes and has been serving as the city’s mayor since January . He beat Muhith Mahmood, a former council member, in the nonpartisan race. But Alharbi’s win was anything but straightforward. Three days after the election, 37 uncounted absentee ballots were discovered, opened but still in their envelopes, in the city clerk’s office. The clerk delivered the ballots to the county, but it was later revealed that unauthorized city officials had entered the clerk’s office while the ballots were there — in part because of a punching bag with Mahmood’s face on it . This broke the ballots’ chain of custody , raising questions about whether they should be counted. The Wayne County Board of Canvassers deadlocked on whether to count the ballots , leaving the election results as they stood without the ballots’ inclusion. Mahmood sued over that decision on behalf of himself and the 37 disenfranchised voters, whose identities remain unknown. A lower court ruled in December that the board of canvassers was within its rights to exclude the ballots. But in a 2-1 decision Friday, Court of Appeals judges said that excluding the ballots “effectively denied 37 voters their fundamental right to vote” under the state constitution and that, under state law, “mistakes made by election officials must not result in the rejection of a ballot cast by an eligible voter.” The decision compared the Hamtramck incident to a 1989 case known as Gracey v. Grosse Pointe Farms Clerk , in which a candidate’s wife illegally delivered other people’s absentee ballots to the clerk’s office. In that case, as in Hamtramck, the ballots’ chain of custody was broken, but there was no evidence that the ballots were tampered with. Accordingly, a court at the time ruled that a “timely cast absentee voter ballot is not to be invalidated solely because the delivery to the clerk was not in compliance.” By the Gracey standard, the Court of Appeals said, the ballots should have been treated as challenged but still counted. “We find that plaintiff and the 37 voters who cast their ballots had a clear legal right to have them appropriately considered under the Michigan Election Law,” reads the opinion, signed by judges Stephen Borrello and Randy Wallace. The judges sent the case back to the trial court with instructions to consider its opinion in a new decision. From left, Wayne County Director of Elections, Greg Mahar, Toni Sellars, Lisa Capatina, Richard Preuss and Edward Keelean in a meeting on Fri., Nov. 14, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. “This is a victory not only for the 37 Hamtramck voters but for all voters who have the right to have their ballots counted and cannot have that right taken away by the mistakes of election officials,” Mark Brewer, Mahmood’s attorney, said in an email. But the new decision now throws the entire mayoral election back into doubt. It was not immediately clear when the 37 ballots will be counted and what would happen if they put Mahmood ahead in the revised count. Members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. This may not be the last word on the case, either. Alharbi told Votebeat on Friday that the city would be filing for a stay and would appeal the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court. (The Supreme Court was asked to rule on the case during the initial appeal but sent it back to the Court of Appeals.) The Court of Appeals “obviously made the wrong decision, because they’re compromised ballots,” Alharbi said. “They were open and they lack a chain of custody.” He and the city don’t feel that the 37 ballots in question “are valid votes,” he continued. Asked how he felt about his victory potentially being overturned, Alharbi said that he doesn’t think the ballots will ultimately be counted. Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org .

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