Viral clip shows Michigan councilman stuffing election drop box with absentee ballots in Trump-won state

HAMTRAMCK, MICHIGAN: A jaw-dropping video out of Michigan allegedly shows Hamtramck City Councilman Abu Musa riding shotgun while his associate stuffs what appear to be stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box in a swing state President Donald Trump carried by just over 80,000 votes.

The video, filmed on August 1, captures Musa handing several bundles of what look like ballots to the driver, then watching as the driver casually feeds three stacks into the box.

Michigan State Police have confirmed the footage is authentic. It’s now part of an ongoing investigation into council members’ residency requirements.

The timing raises eyebrows: the alleged ballot-stuffing happened just days before the city’s August 5 primary election — which Musa conveniently won, topping the field with 1,129 votes.

A council already drowning in scandal

Just days before the video surfaced, two of Musa’s colleagues — Muhtasin Sadman and Mohammed Hassan — were charged with forging ballots in the city’s contested 2023 election.

Musa himself had previously been named "under investigation" in that same scheme but escaped charges.

According to a document from Attorney General Dana Nessel requesting a special prosecutor, council members had allegedly “conspired to receive unvoted absentee ballots signed by recently naturalized citizens,” then “fill[ed] in the candidates of their choosing” during the 2023 race.

For now, Musa is skating by on the numbers. Per unofficial results, he led the August 5 primary with 12.5 percent of the total vote in a 12-person field. Of his 1,129 votes, a staggering 843 came from absentee ballots, while his 286 in-person votes only ranked fifth overall.

Pride flags, politics, and prosecutions

Hamtramck has been under the spotlight all year.

Sadman and Hassan were officially charged on August 11, while Musa and fellow councilman Mohammed Alsomiri were left off the hook for now.

AG Dana Nessel recused herself from the investigation, citing concerns about perceived bias. Nessel, a Jewish lesbian, had already clashed with the Muslim-majority council after criticizing its decision to ban Pride flags on city property.

She also faced criticism for prosecuting pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan following the October 7, detractors accusing her of “bias against Muslims and/or people of Arab descent.” With five of the ballot-fraud defendants themselves “of Arab descent,” Nessel stepped aside to avoid backlash.

America’s first all-Muslim council

Hamtramck, a city of about 28,000, is over 70 percent Muslim and became the first US city run by an all-Muslim council in 2022.

Its election troubles began “after the city clerk noticed unusual patterns with absentee ballots — including identical handwriting on multiple envelopes and large bundles of ballots submitted at once,” according to Detroit’s Local 4 News.

City Clerk Rana Faraj told Votebeat that Michigan’s election rules are clear: “Your ballot should only be handled by you or a family member,” he said, before joking, “everyone’s cousins around here.”

The council has six members, with three seats up for election every two years and four-year terms on the line.

For context, Trump narrowly held Michigan in 2024, taking 49.7 percent of the vote to Kamala Harris’ 48.3 percent.

Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib made headlines last year for endorsing Trump as the leader of America’s first Muslim-majority city. He was later rewarded with the nomination to serve as US ambassador to Kuwait.

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