DEARBORN — After a complaint that there were stacks of campaign literature inside polling places on Election Day at two different sites, a meeting was called by the city’s Election Commission to discuss the matter with local leaders and witnesses.

Abed Hammoud, of the Arab American Political Action Commitee (L) and Dearborn Election Commission members (center, from left-to-right) Kathleen Buda, Debra Walling, and Joyce Knoop discuss reports of problems on Election Day in Dearborn with local leaders and witnesses Monday. PHOTO: Nick Meyer/TAAN

City Clerk Kathleen Buda said the person who filed the complaint, a male, asked not to be identified publicly and declined to attend the meeting.
The two locations in question were Henry Ford Elementary School and Salina School, both in east Dearborn.

Henry Ford Principal Kathleen Kocher said she didn’t see any stacks of literature from local political organizations at her school on Election Day, but she did see stray campaign slates around polling places.

“I noticed people discarding literature on the floor [after they voted], and I found some fliers on top of cabinets within the cafeteria [where voting was held],” she said.

Kocher also saw two voting booths with literature left behind but that was the extent of it, she said.

Election worker Ed Potis said workers were diligent in removing the literature and keeping an eye on possible violations from local political organizations.

But Dearborn citizen Sharon Korhonen, a secretary at Henry Ford, said she saw possible violations from campaigners on Election Day at Salina involving Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) volunteers, who she said were crossing the 100-foot yellow line meant to keep the voting area clear of anyone who might influence voters. She also said she had to tell some campaigners not to place literature on tables at Salina.

Dearborn resident Allan Mallad went to Salina and said he saw “a ruckus going on outside the polls and some gentlemen were intimidating people.”

But Robert Dougherty, Precinct Chairperson at Salina, said he checked outside every 10-15 minutes and didn’t see what Mallad saw, saying that things were fairly orderly at the school.

Osama Siblani, president of AAPAC, which campaigned at both sites, said his group trained election volunteers and stressed what they could and could not do while campaigning at elections sites.

AAPAC passed around a flier at the meeting that was distributed to volunteers the night before the election, informing them of the rules.

The meeting adjourned without conclusive evidence as to the report of literature being stacked inside polling places, attributing much of the fliers to voters who used the campaign slates to vote and then forgot to throw them out.

Buda said she takes such complaints very seriously and will continue to look into any reports of violations.