DEARBORN — In a letter dated Sept. 17, City Clerk George Darany notified residents of incorrect information being on the ballots, two months after the filing deadline.

In the unofficial list provided by the clerk’s office on July 24, the candidates for the two-year seats were listed as Albert Abbas, Patrick D’Ambrosio and Sabrina Evans-Cummings. The candidates listed as six-year candidates were Batoul Baiz, Khodr Farhat, Sharifah Galab, Paul Goddard, Nofile Haidar, Maali Luqman, Adel Mozip, Layal Naja, Ali Nasser, Mary Potlichkoff and Irene Watts.

A letter released by Dearborn City Clerk George Darany on July 24 at 4:05 p.m., after the deadline for withdrawal, shows the unofficial list of candidates for the Dearborn Board of Education.

When the candidates received their ballots to check them, however, those lists were vastly different. Listed under the six-year terms were Batoul Baiz, Khodr Farhat, Sharifah Galab, Paul Goddard, Nofila Haidar, Adel Mozip, Mary Potlichkoff and Irene Watts. Layal Naja, Ali Nasser and Maali Luqman were all missing from this list on the ballot. 

For the two-year term, Albert Abbas, Patrick D’Ambrosio, Sabrina Evans-Cummings and Maali Luqman were listed, meaning Luqman somehow moved from the six-year term list to the two year term list, while Naja and Nasser were still missing.

A photo of the official ballot sent to one of the candidates and received on September 14 shows only eight candidates for the three seats for the six-year term and four for the one seat for the
two-year term.

In Darany’s Sept. 17 letter (56 days after the deadline for withdrawal and after being contacted by the Arab American News inquiring about the confusion), he said the confusion over the ballots was in part due to the “unofficial list” that had been presented previously.

“On the filing deadline, my office posted an unofficial (noted as such) list based on who filed to be candidates,” the letter said. “Subsequently, two individuals who had submitted petitions to get on the ballot were found to have insufficient signatures and were, in accordance with law, disqualified.”

The deadline to file was July 21 and the deadline to withdraw was July 24.

In his letter, Darany also explained how Luqman had moved from the six-year list to the two-year list.

Dearborn City Clerk George Darany corrected the records and released a statement explaining the reason for the changes 56 days after the deadline for withdrawal, and after The Arab American News contacted him on September 15 to inquire about the confusion and the discrepancy between the ballot and his earlier statement.

“In addition, a candidate who signed an affidavit and filed to run for the two-year-term on the board was incorrectly named on the unofficial list as a candidate for the six-year-term,” the letter said. “When county election officials notified the discrepancy, the unofficial list of candidates was immediately removed from the Internet.”

The correct ballot was certified by Wayne County to show that candidates Albert Abbas, Patrick D’Ambrosio, Sabrina Evans-Cummings and Maali Luqman are running for the two-year term seat and Batoul Baiz, Khodr Farhat, Sharifah Galab, Paul Goddard, Nofila Haidar, Adel Mozip, Mary Petlichkoff and Irene Watts are running for the three available six-year term seats.

Darany declined several requests for comment on this matter.