HAMTRAMCK, Mich. – Hamtramck’s already-chaotic 2025 election has escalated into a full-scale legal battle, with City Clerk Rana Faraj filing a sweeping lawsuit alleging retaliation, defamation, and violations of Michigan’s Whistleblower Protection Act.
The suit names the city of Hamtramck, Mayor Amer Ghalib, six city council members, and city manager Alex LaGrou.
Faraj’s attorneys say what happened to her wasn’t a mistake; it was part of a long-running pattern.
“Unfortunately, something’s rotten in Hamtramck. I mean, there’s just a whole culture of corruption, and the city has silenced individuals who try to stand up and do the right thing,” said her attorney, Jon Marko. “This is not the first time city leadership has gone after someone for speaking up, and at some point it stops being a mistake and starts being a pattern.”
The ballots: How the election crisis began
On Nov. 10, 2025, Faraj was placed on administrative leave after 37 valid absentee ballots were discovered in her office, ballots that had not been counted on election night.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers did not include them, deadlocked 2–2 along party lines, and ruled that a broken chain of custody prevented the ballots from being legally counted.
Faraj had testified that AV Precinct 2 showed a 37-ballot discrepancy on Election Night.
Non-election officials, including an interim city manager, entered the sealed clerk’s office while ballots were inside, and staff discovered the ballots during routine work two days later and delivered them to Wayne County within 30 minutes.
The final certified result, after adding 120 cured absentee ballots, showed Adam Alharbi winning the mayoral race by six votes over Muhith Mahmood. Mahmood has since filed for a recount and is seeking to have the 37 ballots counted or the affected voters re-voted.
Those 37 ballots could alter the election’s outcome.
The whistleblower complaint that preceded it
According to the lawsuit, Faraj wasn’t blindsided by the retaliation; she warned state officials months earlier.
The suit states Faraj filed a formal written complaint with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on March 12, 2025, reporting ballot harvesting, voter intimidation, unlawful interference with election administration, and evidence that at least two candidates did not reside in Hamtramck but remained on the ballot.
Her complaint preceded a criminal investigation that brought felony charges, including against a sitting council member.
Marko says Faraj did what any clerk is required to do.
“She had reported to the Attorney General that there was illegal and concerning things going on with election fraud, and as a result of that, she was retaliated against and now she’s been taken off of her post,” Marko said.
A city marked by scandal
The lawsuit argues Faraj was targeted precisely because she tried to prevent a repeat of previous election controversies, ballot harvesting, candidate residency issues, and public corruption investigations that have engulfed Hamtramck throughout 2025.
Marko says that culture is deeply entrenched.
“They just continue to retaliate against individuals who try to speak up and say, ‘Hey, there’s something wrong here, there’s something illegal going on,’” Marko said.
“How can a city government who’s been plagued with so many civil lawsuits, scandals, criminal indictments, people caught on camera stuffing ballots in the mailboxes, how can this government serve the people? It can’t,” Marko added.
Retaliation, surveillance, and ‘We’re watching you’
The lawsuit alleges that after Faraj contacted the Attorney General, city officials began monitoring her every move. The complaint states that:
• Council members were “fixating on staff timekeeping.”
• Staff were told: “We are watching you.”
• Faraj’s work hours and decisions were scrutinized.
• Officials openly discussed “trying to find something to hold against her.”
Faraj was placed on leave just days after the election and months after her formal complaint. The lawsuit accuses the city of:
• Wrongful discharge
• Defamation
• Civil conspiracy
• Constitutional violations
• Violations of the Michigan Whistleblower Protection Act
“Imagine standing up trying to do the right thing… and as a result, you lose your job, you lose your livelihood, and you lose your reputation and your name,” Marko said. “They attack, they smear people because there’s so much corruption and so much illegality, they don’t want change.”
Why it matters to voters
Marko argues the real victims are the residents of Hamtramck.
“The people of the city of Hamtramck do not have a functioning, ethical, and legal government,” Marko said.
Public servants, Marko says, cannot serve the city while fearing retaliation, indictments, or lawsuits.
Local 4 reached out to Dana Nessel, and each person named in the lawsuit: the mayor, each council member, and the interim city manager. We are waiting to hear back.
“When she reported some election issues to the AG office earlier this year, city did not even give her a verbal warning for doing that.
We considered that as part of her job and nothing was wrong with it, and no one took any action against her.
However, she was placed on paid administrative leave after the most recent city election of last November, due to multiple issues that took place in the clerk office the election day, including finding 37 open ballots that were not tabulated or followed chain of custody and stayed in the office for 24-48 hours before reporting them to Wayne county, allowing unauthorized people to stay in the clerk office the day of election including the former city clerk and the former city attorney, and finding a punching bag in the clerk office with a picture of one of the mayoral candidate on it.
The plan was to give her a warning and ask her to come back to work, but her attorney send a request letter asking for 500K by the end of that day, or they will file a lawsuit.
The city decided not to be exploited or blackmailed by anyone, especially those who committed huge mistakes that affected election outcomes and placed city at risk of liability.
The city will defend its resources and the taxpayers’ money and will not allow anyone to abuse their power or illegally absorb its resources. We think our legal position is a strong in this case."
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib