DETROIT — Dearborn mayoral candidate and current City Councilman Tom Tafelski has filed a petition for votes recount for the November general elections. Tafelski lost the race against incumbent Mayor Jack O’Reilly Jr. 57 to 42 percent . O’Reilly garnered 10,999 votes while Tafelski received only 8,218.

Tafelski claimed “voter tampering by unauthorized people inside polling stations” in his written request for a recount, which was filed with the Wayne County Clerk’s office on November 22. He also claims that “several machines went down or malfunctioned at multiple locations during election day” on Tuesday, November 7.

Tafelski wrote in his petition for a recount that there were discrepancies between the absentee votes in the count room and the total absentee votes when they were transmitted back into their home precincts.

Tafelski has requested recounts in 96 precincts. The cost of the recount is charged to the requester account. Tafelski submitted a check for $12,000 as a deposit to cover the recount cost per article MCL 168.867, which stipulates that, “If one candidate is to be elected to the office and the official canvass of votes shows that the number of votes separating the winning candidate and the petitioner is more than 50 votes or 0.5 percent of the total number of votes cast in the race, whichever is greater, the petitioner shall deposit with the clerk the sum of $125.00 for each precinct referred to in his or her petition.”

The AANews contacted Tafelski campaign spokesman Michael Bshara for comments. He denied that such a petition has been actually filed. The AANews has obtained a copy of the petition.