A Michigan city council member was caught on camera allegedly placing stacks of absentee ballots into an election drop-box just days before securing re-election in a crowded local primary.
Footage obtained by Local 4 appears to show Hamtramck City Council member Abu Musa handing papers to a driver on August 1. The driver then deposited them into a ballot box. Four days later, Musa retained his council seat, finishing first among 12 candidates with 1,129 votes.
According to the Daily Mail, only 286 of those votes were cast in person, while 843 came through absentee ballots. Without them, Musa would have placed fifth.
The video surfaced amid heightened scrutiny after two Hamtramck council members were arraigned in an unrelated 2023 election fraud case. That probe began when a city clerk reported large bundles of ballots filled out in similar handwriting. Musa was named in the investigation but not charged.
Michigan law permits a person to deliver absentee ballots for relatives or household members. “You can [turn in more than one ballot], but there’s a big caveat as to who, whose ballot you can return,” Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown told WXWZ.
Musa has denied wrongdoing and did not respond to requests for comment.