A Michigan metropolis council member was caught on digital camera stuffing an election drop-box with obvious absentee ballots simply days earlier than he received his re-election bid in an area major.
Hamtramck Metropolis Council member Abu Musa was seen within the passenger seat of a automobile on Aug. 1 handing stacks of paper to the automobile’s driver, who then dumped them into a close-by poll field, footage obtained by Native 4 seems to indicate.
Musa held onto his re-election spot within the major 4 days in a while Aug. 5, beating out 11 different candidates with 1,129 votes.
However solely 286 of these votes have been forged on election day — with 843 being forged by absentee poll, the Day by day Mail reported.
Musa would have positioned fifth with out the absentee ballots, in keeping with the Mail.
Footage of the poll field dump emerged earlier in August only a day after two Hamtramck council members have been arraigned on election fraud prices over a 2023 investigation.
That investigation was sparked after a metropolis clerk famous absentee ballots have been being dropped off in massive bundles and crammed out with suspiciously related handwriting.
And whereas Musa was named within the investigation, he was not charged.
However, together with one other member of town council, he’s on the heart of an investigation into whether or not he’s really a resident of Hamtramck — one thing required to carry his metropolis council place.
He has denied these allegations, Native 4 reported.
The newly launched footage of the poll field stuffing was taken as part of that investigation, Michigan State Police confirmed.
Native Michigan regulation has no restrict to what number of absentee ballots a single individual can bodily flip in on different voters’ behalf — however folks can solely submit one other individual’s absentee poll if they’re shut kinfolk or dwell of their dwelling.
“You may [turn in more than one ballot], however there’s a giant caveat as to who, whose poll you may return,” Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown informed WXWZ.
“If it’s a direct member of the family otherwise you co-inhabit with any person, it doesn’t should be in a romantic means, however when you co-inhabit with somebody, you may return their absentee ballots,” she added.
Musa didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the footage.
