Thirty-seven absentee ballots found in a Michigan city clerk’s office have decided a mayor’s race a full year after Election Day. Former Hamtramck City Councilman Muhith Mahmood was sworn in as mayor on Sunday, one year after he was declared the loser by 11 votes. The ballots were counted last month under a court order, flipping that loss into a 12-vote win, and the Wayne County Board of Canvassers certified the results days before he took the oath. Footage from the ceremony shows him having to repeat his oath phrase by phrase as it was read to him.
The race dates to November 4th, 2025, when Mahmood lost to Adam Alharbi, who took office that January. The day after the election, the 37 ballots turned up inside opened return envelopes at the clerk’s office, kicking off a yearlong legal fight that ended Sunday at Hamtramck High School. Mahmood becomes the first Bengali American mayor of the Detroit enclave.
Former City Clerk Rana Faraj raised chain-of-custody concerns over the opened envelopes, and the Board of Canvassers deadlocked 2-2, leaving them out of the certified results. Mahmood sued, and Wayne County Circuit Court initially sided with the board. The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed in March, the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case in August, and on September 30rd, Judge Kathleen McCarthy ordered the ballots counted.
At the October 16th count in Detroit, two ballots were disqualified. Of the remaining 35, 30 went to Mahmood, as WXYZ reported, putting him at 2,089 votes to Alharbi’s 2,077. Alharbi had separately sued claiming Mahmood lived in Troy, and as ClickOnDetroit reported, McCarthy rejected it on October 30th, writing that “as of today, it appears that Mahmood is, in fact, the rightful mayor of Hamtramck.” The Detroit Free Press noted that Mahmood endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 while Alharbi backed Donald Trump, though the race itself is nonpartisan.
The board certified the new results on Wednesday, one year to the day after Election Day, and turned back Alharbi’s petition for a recount, as CBS Detroit reported. Board members reviewing the ballots noted several appeared to have names erased and rewritten; the ballots remain with the Wayne County Clerk. Mahmood took the oath before a few hundred people at Hamtramck High School, with Chief Judge Alexis Krot of the 31st District Court administering it.
The oath was captured in a clip posted on X. Krot feeds it to him a few words at a time, and Mahmood gives each phrase back in pieces. “I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution,” the oath begins. “And that I will faithfully discharge the duties… of the office of… Mayor of the City of Hamtramck… according to my best of the ability.”
Mahmood told WXYZ: “Whole city is happy that, you know, we build the truth and we bring the justice back to the city.” “We should have admit the result of the election now,” he added. In his inaugural address, he told the crowd, “Our residents deserve a government that will listen, respond, and follow through,” according to The Detroit News.
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Watch the swearing-in ceremony here:
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 9, 2026
Alharbi’s attorney, Nabih Ayad, spent Sunday insisting the ceremony settles nothing. “What’s happening today is technically illegal,” Ayad said, arguing the process for removing a sitting certified mayor was skipped, leaving two certified mayors. City officials say Alharbi emptied the mayor’s office Friday, and Interim City Manager Syed Amer Ahsan said every legal requirement for the transition has been met.
Ayad said a residency appeal is pending with the Michigan Court of Appeals, with more challenges planned over the ballots and the swearing-in itself. “We feel very strongly at the end of the day,” he told reporters. “We’ll succeed on this because we feel there’s clear fraud and the absentee ballots as well that have not been counted properly.” “This is far from finished,” he said. “There’s going to be litigation like crazy.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.