By World Israel News Staff

Local politicians in a Muslim-majority Michigan city are at the center of a growing election fraud scandal, after being caught on camera stuffing absentee ballots into a collection box — an action that prosecutors say represents a flagrant violation of state election law.

Four members of the city council of Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb where more than 70 percent of residents are Muslim, are under investigation, with two already facing criminal charges.

Councilman Muhtasin Sadman has been charged with forging a signature on an absentee ballot application, forgery, two counts of an unqualified elector attempting to vote, and making a false statement on an absentee ballot application.

Fellow Councilman Mohammed Hassan faces charges of forgery, forging a signature on an absentee ballot application, and making a false statement on a ballot application.

If convicted, Sadman and Hassan could face up to five years in prison.

The case began in March, when a Hamtramck city clerk noticed that a suspiciously large number of absentee ballots had identical handwriting and were submitted in bulk.

An investigation by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office later uncovered video evidence of Sadman feeding dozens of ballots into a collection receptacle while another man —believed to be Hassan — handed him stacks of envelopes.

The authenticity of the footage, which leaked online, was confirmed by Michigan State Police.

According to an internal document written by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Sadman, Hassan, and four other suspects “conspired to receive unvoted absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized citizens, and to then fill in the candidates of their choosing.”

The document alleges the group paid voters for their cooperation “in order to gain an advantage in local elections.”