MI Democrats’ Internal Battle Exposes Criminal Election Syndicate

Established Fact

On August 5, 2024, Project Veritas release a story featuring undercover video that exposes a long-running absentee-ballot election fraud syndicate ran by Democrats in Hamtramck, MI. Tensions between LGBTQ-progressives and Muslim political factions within the Michigan Democratic Party led to the public exposure of this scheme by Project Veritas.

“This is another thing that you can’t say out loud. The absentee ballots are being filled out in people’s dining rooms by the candidates.”

“They call it the Midnight Meetings… and they auction them, they bid for them [ballots]."

“These guys go door to door and take people’s ballots. They bully them… intimidate.”

If everything’s good, we can drop [the ballots] to the City Hall. City Hall has that [ballot] box. We can drop it there.”

“They hire black people to go to black houses. They hire Bangladeshi people to go to Bangladeshi houses… they pay them for their ballots.”

“We have a serious… absentee ballot problem. That’s been going on for 20 years.”

Background

The core of the controversy involves a transition in political power from a long-standing Polish-American establishment to a socially conservative Muslim-majority leadership. This shift has created significant friction within the Democratic Party, specifically between LGBTQ+ advocates and Muslim council members. Key allegations include “midnight meetings” where ballots are auctioned, candidates filling out ballots in private dining rooms, and ethnic-based voter intimidation. Michigan State Police and the Attorney General’s office have launched formal investigations, leading to multiple felony charges against sitting council members for forgery and election law violations.

The allegations of fraud are inextricably linked to a deepening divide within the local Democratic coalition, characterized by “buyer’s remorse” among progressive activists.

The tension escalated in 2023 when the all-Muslim City Council voted to ban the LGBTQ+ pride flag from city property. This move alienated progressives who had previously celebrated the council’s diversity.

Lynn Blasey: A queer-identifying Democratic candidate, Blasey alleges she was defeated by Muslim opponents through illegal harvesting and paid ballot schemes.
Karen Majewski: The former mayor (2006–2021) claims she was “ballot harvested out of office” in 2021, ending 100 years of Polish political leadership in the city.

Former officials suggest that election fraud has been allowed to persist because of a fear of being labeled racist. Karen Majewski noted that there is significant hesitation to publicly accuse “brown-skinned people” of fraud, which has deterred challenges to abuses within ethnic enclaves.

How the Alleged Ballot Scheme Works

Project Veritas’ Hamtramck investigation builds on claims that absentee‑ballot fraud has been a feature of local elections for roughly two decades, especially inside tight ethnic enclaves of recently naturalized immigrants.

Key alleged mechanisms:

Door‑to‑door absentee ballot control: Former city clerk August Gitschlag (a Democrat) says operatives go through neighborhoods with absentee applications, pressure residents to sign, then take possession of the mailed ballots and have candidates or their agents fill them out in private homes. He describes explicit threats within extended‑family immigration chains: vote as told or risk relatives “having nowhere to live” when they come over.
Dining‑room ballot filling: Former mayor Karen Majewski says absentee ballots are “being filled out in people’s dining rooms by the candidates,” and calls it something “you can’t say out loud,” implying an open secret among insiders that ballots are completed by political actors, not voters.
Illegal harvesting and transport: Under Michigan law, large‑scale third‑party handling of multiple absentee ballots (“ballot harvesting”) is illegal, but the investigation claims Muslim‑aligned operations routinely collect and deliver bundles of ballots to city hall drop boxes.
Paid vote schemes and ethnic targeting: Council candidate Lynn Blasey alleges that campaign networks “hire black people to go to black houses” and “Bangladeshi people to go to Bangladeshi houses” to purchase ballots, paying voters directly for control of their absentee vote.
“Midnight meetings” and ballot auctions: Multiple sources describe late‑night gatherings—nicknamed “midnight meetings”—where harvested absentee ballots are allegedly auctioned to the highest‑bidding candidate or faction.

Separate state and local reporting now corroborates that Michigan authorities opened criminal probes into Hamtramck absentee‑ballot abuses, including allegations that council members conspired to obtain pre‑signed absentee ballots from naturalized citizens and then filled them out for preferred candidates, with some voters allegedly paid or registered at false addresses.

MI Attorney General Investigations

Michigan’s attorney general and state police have opened formal investigations into Hamtramck absentee‑ballot abuses, including alleged conspiracies by multiple council members to obtain and complete pre‑signed absentee ballots from new citizens, pay for votes, and manipulate addresses. Two Muslim council members, Mohammed Hassan and Muhtasin Sadman, have now been charged with multiple felonies involving alleged forging of absentee ballots and aiding unqualified electors in the 2023 election, with prosecutors stressing the seriousness of forging voter signatures.

Local Detroit outlets obtained hundreds of hours of surveillance video under FOIA and publicized footage that appears to show councilman Abu Musa involved in late‑night bulk ballot drops at a city drop box, which state police confirmed are evidence in an active probe. This creates a layered evidentiary picture: long‑time local rumors; progressive Democrats and LGBTQ‑aligned candidates privately confirming those rumors to an undercover camera; and independent law‑enforcement action that, at minimum, validates that the absentee‑ballot system in Hamtramck is under serious, non‑partisan scrutiny.

Conflict of Interest?

Dana Nessel is Michigan’s first openly LGBTQ statewide officeholder and first openly gay attorney general, repeatedly branded by LGBTQ advocacy groups as a strongly pro‑equality, pro‑LGBTQ and pro‑choice official. In 2023 she publicly condemned Hamtramck’s Muslim‑led city council after it passed a resolution banning the display of LGBTQ Pride and other political flags on city property, directly aligning herself with LGBTQ interests against the council’s socially conservative position. That prior clash was specifically tied to councilman Mohammed Hassan, who introduced the pride‑flag ban and later became one of the central figures in the election‑fraud probe. This history meant that as an openly LGBTQ AG who had already blasted Hamtramck’s Muslim leadership over LGBTQ policy, any prosecutorial decision she made about that same council would be scrutinized for anti‑Muslim or pro‑LGBTQ bias.

In an April 2025 request, Nessel’s office formally asked the courts to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the Hamtramck election‑fraud case. The request explicitly cites two perception‑of‑bias issues:

Her prior public criticism of Hamtramck’s policies on LGBTQ rights (i.e., the pride‑flag controversy).
Criticism she faced after charging pro‑Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan, where opponents claimed anti‑Muslim or anti‑Arab bias.

Because five of the six people under investigation in Hamtramck were of Arab descent, her office argued that if she personally brought charges, critics would likely accuse her of targeting Muslims, especially given her LGBTQ advocacy and prior public comments.

Justice System or Party Enforcement Tool?

So far, the Hamtramck election‑fraud prosecutions have produced one misdemeanor conviction with no jail time, ongoing investigations, and at least one councilman still facing more serious charges that have not yet gone to trial as of June 2026.

Councilman Muhtasin Sadman originally faced five election‑related charges, including felony forgery, forging an absentee‑ballot signature, aiding unqualified electors, and a misdemeanor false statement on an absentee application. In October 2025, a judge dismissed Sadman’s felony counts without prejudice after two key witnesses failed to appear at his preliminary hearing, though the misdemeanor proceeded. In early 2026, Sadman reached a plea deal: he pled guilty to a reduced misdemeanor, “loitering in the vicinity of illegal activity,” carrying up to 90 days in jail and a fine, but he was sentenced only to a 500‑dollar fine and one year of non‑reporting probation (no jail time). Under the plea terms, if he completes probation without violations, the conviction will be dismissed and removed from his record; he also remains on the Hamtramck City Council.

Councilman Mohammed Hassan still faces active charges: forging a signature on an absentee‑ballot application, felony forgery, and making a false statement on an absentee ballot application, with potential exposure of up to around 10 years in prison if maximum penalties were ever imposed. As of March 2026, local reporting says Hassan’s trial is scheduled to begin in April 2026, unless a plea deal is reached earlier, and he is due for additional pretrial proceedings. Media and prosecutor statements indicate the wider investigation remains open, with the city clerk placed on administrative leave and additional city workers and political actors still described as “under investigation” or possible future targets for charges.

So far, no report shows any Hamtramck official actually serving jail time over the 2023 municipal election conduct; the one resolved case ended in a no‑jail, probation‑plus‑fine outcome, and the more serious case(s) are still pending.

Conclusion

Publicly, Nessel frames her election cases as neutral law‑enforcement, but when you line up Hamtramck with her broader record, it looks more like selective, Democrat‑aligned enforcement: aggressive when Republicans or “false electors” are involved, cautious and plea‑driven when it’s Democratic machines or key coalition blocs like Muslim officials.

Regardless of the status of compromised state prosecutions, the election fraud syndicate exposed by Project Veritas certainly merits the attention of federal prosecutors. The election fraud scheme revealed in Hamtramck is likely a template for how such syndicates work in other Democrat communities nationwide.

Made possible by the Lindell Offense Fund