Breaking news … Mayoral ballot count is set for this Friday

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck may be on the way to having a new mayor.
After eight months of legal battles, the Wayne County Board of Canvassers will meet this Friday, Oct. 16, to tabulate 37 uncounted ballots from last year’s November election.
The county will meet at noon in the Ralph Vigliotti Building, 1900 E. Jefferson in Detroit. The meeting is open to the public.
But even if the new election result ends in the city having a new mayor, the official certification won’t happen until after the upcoming Nov. 3 election ballots are certified along with the ballot tabulation from this Friday.
That certification is most likely to happen a day or two after November’s election.
Even then, the saga may not be over.
That’s because Mayor Adam Alharbi, who won last year’s election by a slim 11-point victory margin, says he is seeking further legal action to prevent former councilmember Muhith Mahmood from being officially sworn in as the city’s mayor.
Alharbi is claiming that Mahmood should be disqualified because he is not a resident of the city.
So far, Alharbi has struck out with his claim in the courts.
Alharbi says he is in this legal fight “because I love Hamtramck. I believe in clean government, and I want our city to prosper just like our surrounding cities and towns,” Alharbi said in a Facebook post.
Mahmood has said that he is, indeed, a resident, but admitted he frequently visits his wife in children who live in Troy. Mahmood says that is he not separated or divorced from his wife.
If it turns out that Alharbi remains the victor in the mayoral election, no further legal action is expected.
In the meantime, a bare majority of city councilmembers agreed to have the city pay for Alharbi’s personal legal bills to prevent the 37 uncounted ballots from being tabulated.
That bill is expected to reach $200,000. The city has already paid $134,000, according to invoices that The Review received through a Freedom of Information Act request.
However, because of a legal challenge by Councilmember Mohammed Alsomiri over paying the legal fees, the money is being held in an escrow account.
Alharbi insists the city should pay his legal fees because he was officially the mayor when Mahmood began his legal challenge to have the 37 ballots counted.
But Mahmood’s legal action to have the ballots counted began before Alharbi was sworn in as mayor. Alharbi hired his own personal attorney to prevent the ballots from being counted before he officially became the mayor.
Posted Oct. 13, 2026