By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — The Dearborn mayoral recount ended after 18 of the 50 precincts were counted when former candidate Thomas Tafelski withdrew his petition.
In the 18 precincts, incumbent Mayor John O’Reilly Jr. gained three votes while Tafelski gained zero.
Final results now stand with O’Reilly winning re-election with 11,001 votes and Tafelski finishing with 8,218 votes.
Wayne County conducted the recount at the Dearborn Administrative Center, 16901 Michigan Ave., and ended after about three hours. The recount was scheduled to take three days.
Tafelski’s recount petition was approved by the Wayne County Board of Canvassers on Dec. 1.
Tafelski filed the petition on Nov. 22 because of alleged “voter tampering by unauthorized people inside polling stations” and “several machines went down or malfunctioned at multiple locations during election day.”
The Arab American News also reported Tafelski claims 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 did not return phone calls for comments by publication time.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])