Democrats in Hamtramck, Michigan, now regret supporting the all-Muslim City Council they once praised. Local progressives, who thought Hamtramck was a place of strong progressive values and tolerance, are upset because the new Muslim leaders are making unexpected and controversial decisions.
In 2023, Project Veritas started looking into the situation after the new Muslim leaders banned the LGBTQ pride flag from city property. They spoke with locals, Democrat officials, and liberal activists who said these Muslim politicians were using illegal methods to collect ballots to stay in power.
Project Veritas spent five months investigating Hamtramck and found surprising details about voter fraud in the Muslim communities. They discovered threats, bribery, and secret “midnight meetings” where blank absentee ballots were sold to the highest bidder, usually elected officials.
Democrat officials in Hamtramck told Project Veritas that ethnic minorities have been using absentee ballot fraud to win city elections for over twenty years. However, when Conservative Yemeni Muslims were elected as mayor and city council members in 2021, they ended a hundred years of Polish political control.
Locals told Project Veritas that life under the new Muslim leaders isn’t the unity for which they had hoped. With more Arab immigrants coming to the city, things like burqas, animal sacrifices, and the Muslim call to prayer being played loudly five times a day have become common.
Hamtramck’s first woman mayor, Karen Majewski, said she is “sure” she was unfairly removed from office because of ballot harvesting. Majewski lost her election in 2021 after serving the city for 18 years. She had helped the city through many changes but was pushed out by new policies.
Residents of Hamtramck say that voter fraud mainly happens in closed ethnic communities. Immigrants who don’t know much about voting are bullied into giving their ballots to people who work for the candidates.
August Gitschlag, who has worked as Hamtramck’s city clerk for ten years, explained how voter fraud happens. He said that people go around neighborhoods with absentee ballot applications, have people sign them, and then bully them into voting for specific candidates. They might even threaten that someone’s cousin won’t have a place to live if they don’t vote a certain way.
Former mayor Lynn Blasey, a Democrat who ran for city council, said she saw the shady side of Hamtramck elections. Blasey, who identifies as queer, was the only non-Muslim candidate for city council in 2021 and 2023. She believes her Muslim opponents, Councilmen Mohammed Hassan and Abu Musa, won because of organized ballot harvesting. She said they hired people from specific communities, like Black people to visit Black households, and then paid them for their ballots.
Blasey discussed “midnight meetings,” where harvested ballots are sold to the highest bidder. Project Veritas met with Councilman Abu Musa to show him recordings about these claims of voter fraud and secret ballot auctions.
When asked, Musa didn’t deny the “midnight meetings.” Instead, he said that another councilman, Hassan, admitted buying 300 ballots illegally in 2023.
A Project Veritas reporter offered Councilmen Hassan and Musa what they thought were actual absentee ballots to see how people accused of ballot harvesting would react. They bought the fake ballots, and Hassan showed them how to get them counted by putting them in a drop box.
These findings might impact the “fake electors” in Michigan. Attorney General Dana Nessel charged sixteen GOP electors with serious crimes for signing certificates because they believed Donald Trump won the state in 2020. A crucial part of the case is determining if they thought there was widespread voter fraud in Michigan.
The new information shows there might have been voter fraud in Michigan, but Attorney General Dana Nessel and the FBI ignored these claims after the 2020 election. Rep. Rachelle Smit, a Republican, is asking why people involved in suspected fraud haven’t been charged. The Michigan State Police is investigating GBI Strategies for sending in thousands of fake voter registration forms in Muskegon County in October 2020.
Progressives who once welcomed Middle Eastern immigrants are now feeling betrayed. Their progressive values and LGBTQ-friendly policies might be lost because Muslim politicians are using voter fraud to gain power.
Conservatives, who are used to seeing liberal voter fraud, don’t have much sympathy for Michigan Democrats. Michigan’s Muslim politicians learned from the best.
