A failed conspiracy to steal a mayoral race reveals how manipulation can occur on the native degree, and the way troublesome it could be to orchestrate fraud on a bigger scale.
By Carter Walker, Votebeat
In October 2021, shortly earlier than Election Day, Mahabubul Tayub was reviewing the voter rolls for the tiny Philadelphia suburb of Millbourne, the place he was on the poll as a candidate for mayor. One thing didn’t appear proper.
Dozens of recent voters had been registered in latest weeks, he observed, together with some individuals he knew — individuals who didn’t reside in Millbourne.
Tayub gained the mayoral election that November, however it could take years for authorities to totally unravel what was behind the odd registrations he found: a brazen try at election fraud.
Simply final month, his opponent within the 2021 race, Md Nurul Hasan, pleaded responsible in federal court docket to 33 felony fees in a failed scheme to steal the election by illegally registering dozens of nonresidents as Millbourne voters, then casting mail ballots on their behalf. Two associates additionally pleaded responsible to a number of fees, together with fraudulent voter registration.
The case serves as a actuality test amid a raging nationwide debate over election safety and the specter of voter fraud, particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania. It’s proof, on one hand, that regardless of the numerous safeguards in place, voter fraud can occur on the native degree, with lasting penalties for the neighborhood. However, it additionally helps illustrate how troublesome it could be to orchestrate such fraud on a bigger scale with out detection.
“It seems to be in the local races this pops up the most, where there is a smaller turnout and there is possibly a direct connection between the person committing the bad act and the person who is going to benefit from the bad act,” mentioned Jim Allen, the Delaware County elections director.
Md Nurul Hasan, left, vp of the Millbourne borough council, and Mayor Mahabubul Tayub, proper, throughout a council assembly on Could 5, 2025. The 2 males ran in opposition to one another within the 2021 mayoral election.
It’s in these small jurisdictions, he mentioned, that “the temptation is highest and the risk-reward is highest.”
Two immigrants grew to become associates, then opponents
Millbourne is a tiny borough on the jap fringe of Delaware County, bordering Philadelphia. It covers lower than 50 acres — not even a tenth of a sq. mile — and has roughly 1,200 residents.
The land was initially the homestead of the Sellers household, immigrants from Derbyshire, England. Within the mid 1700s, John Sellers opened Millbourne Mills, a flour mill that drew its identify from close by Mill Creek, now Cobb’s Creek — the dividing line between Delaware County and Philadelphia.
As small as it’s, the borough has seen big demographic modifications in latest many years. In 1980, it was greater than 90% white, in line with the U.S. Census Bureau, however by 2020, it was majority Asian. That was pushed by immigration from South Asia, together with India and Bangladesh.
Avenue indicators mark Sellers Avenue, which can also be known as Bangladesh Avenue, in Millbourne, in recognition of the borough’s massive Bangladeshi neighborhood. Sellers was the identify of the household who owned the mill for which the borough is called.
Now, Market Avenue, the principle thoroughfare by way of Millbourne, is dotted with South Asian grocery shops and boutiques promoting Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani clothes. In 2023, Sellers Avenue — a brief, principally residential road named after the founding household — was given a second identify: Bangladesh Avenue, a change that the native Bangladeshi neighborhood celebrated as a testomony to their rising financial and political energy.
Tayub, 47, grew up in Chittagong, a port metropolis in southeast Bangladesh. He graduated from college there with a level in economics, and moved to Philadelphia, then Millbourne within the early 2000s. Hasan, 48, can also be from Chittagong, and Tayub mentioned the 2 had develop into pleasant when he and Hasan lived in the identical Philadelphia constructing.
“All the friends [who were] the same age, all the people from Bangladesh” socialized collectively, Tayub recalled.
Tayub additionally received to know former Millbourne Mayor Tom Kramer, a Democrat who later inspired him to run for the five-member borough council. Tayub and Hasan each launched bids as Democrats and gained within the 2015 municipal election, Tayub mentioned. (Each Tayub and Hasan are U.S. residents.)
Within the spring of 2021, Kramer determined in opposition to operating for one more time period as mayor. Tayub entered the race, with Kramer’s assist. Hasan jumped in, too.
Tom Kramer, the previous mayor of Millbourne, outdoors the borough’s assembly corridor. After Kramer determined to not search reelection in 2021, Mahabubul Tayub entered the race with Kramer’s assist.
The city’s voters skewed closely Democratic, which meant whoever gained the social gathering major was more likely to coast to victory within the fall. And whether or not it was Hasan or Tayub, the winner was poised to develop into the primary Bangladesh-born mayor of a U.S. city, a prospect that obtained media consideration in Bangladesh.
Tayub mentioned he wasn’t nervous concerning the competitors. “I have faith people know me,” he mentioned.
Tayub gained the first by 18 votes out of 258 solid. However Hasan launched a write-in marketing campaign for the November normal election with the assist of two different council members: Md Munsur Ali and Md Rafikul Islam, who misplaced his major bid for reelection to the council. (Md is an abbreviation for Muhammad, and a standard prefix for Bangladeshi names.)
How the plot unfolded
In line with the federal indictment that laid out the boys’s try and steal the election, the three conspired to acquire private info from non-Millbourne residents — primarily associates of Hasan’s and Ali’s. Hasan then registered them to vote in Millbourne utilizing the Division of State’s web site, the indictment mentioned — in some instances updating current registrations by altering them to Millbourne addresses — and requested mail-in ballots on their behalf.
Millbourne Council member Md Munsur Ali, heart, on the Could 5 council assembly. Ali supported Md Nurul Hasan’s write-in bid for mayor in 2021.
The indictment mentioned Hasan and Ali instructed the residents of close by communities, together with Higher Darby and Philadelphia, that they’d not get in bother, as long as they “did not vote in another election in November 2021.”
In line with the indictment, after receiving the ballots, Hasan and the others wrote in Hasan’s identify for mayor and solid the ballots. In all, the indictment says, Hasan and his co-conspirators fraudulently registered practically three dozen individuals.
The indictment doesn’t establish the voters who have been registered improperly, however one of many individuals whom Hasan registered confirmed his involvement and agreed to talk with Votebeat and Highlight PA on situation of anonymity, out of concern that their involvement within the scheme might jeopardize their present employment.
The voter confirmed giving Hasan their driver’s license and permitting Hasan to proceed with the Millbourne registration and request a mail poll for them.
“I trusted him and thought if I only give one vote, it’s not a problem,” mentioned the particular person. “He made us fools.”
Suspicion forward of Election Day: ‘I know these people.’
The votes hadn’t even been counted when Millbourne residents started to catch on to the scheme. In line with the indictment, the borough added 29 voters between the first and the November election. Provided that Millbourne had fewer than 600 voters, it was a noticeable bounce.
After Tayub grew suspicious of the brand new voter registrations, he introduced his considerations to Kramer, the departing mayor, although neither man remembers precisely when.
Md Nurul Hasan, vp of the Millbourne borough council, on the Could 5 council assembly. Hasan pleaded responsible in April to 33 felony fees in a failed scheme to steal the 2021 mayoral election.
“I know these people, they never live [in] Millbourne,” Tayub recalled pondering when he noticed some newly registered names. “They live [in] Upper Darby.” Tayub’s lawyer filed a criticism with the county elections workplace on Oct. 28, 2021. Tayub and Kramer mentioned in addition they reported the matter to legislation enforcement across the time of the election. The district lawyer’s workplace didn’t reply to a query about when and the way they grew to become conscious of the matter.
However Tayub and others in Millbourne mentioned they grew pissed off as a result of though the county was taking steps to look into the scenario, for practically a 12 months afterward, they didn’t observe a lot progress.
“I couldn’t take it,” Tayub mentioned throughout a latest interview with Votebeat and Highlight PA.
A map of Millbourne borough limits, courting to shortly after it cut up from Higher Darby, hangs within the borough’s assembly corridor. The borough covers lower than one-tenth of a sq. mile.
The federal indictment got here in February 2025.
The Pennsylvania Division of State mentioned it “first became aware of the fraud allegations when it was contacted by federal law enforcement.”
“I don’t have any comment beyond stating the obvious, that there has been a prosecution,” Allen, the county election director, mentioned. “It was a very difficult matter to investigate because you can’t make assumptions [based on] ‘Well, this house looks empty.’ Well, was it empty last fall? How do you know it’s empty? Did someone move out?”
Requested after an April borough council assembly if he had any clarification or remark, Hasan declined. “I don’t want to say anything now,” Hasan mentioned.
A boy rides a motorbike in Millbourne. The borough, which was 90% white in 1980, has seen big demographic modifications in latest many years, pushed by immigration from South Asia, together with India and Bangladesh.
The truth of election fraud vs. false claims
Circumstances like Millbourne’s muddy the intensifying nationwide debate over election fraud: how widespread it’s, what to do about it, and, extra essentially, whether or not our election system will be trusted.
In recent times, an ecosystem of conspiracy theories about election manipulation has flourished on-line. Justin Grimmer, a political scientist at Stanford College, has researched the type of broad claims of systematic election fraud that President Donald Trump and his allies made after the 2020 election to elucidate his loss, and mentioned he has discovered no proof of any such conspiracy.
However Grimmer’s analysis has turned up actual cases of fraud, and so they usually appear like what occurred in Millbourne — an area race, involving a comparatively small variety of votes.
“I think it gives some insight into why it would be very hard to do this in a broad national way,” he mentioned. “This sort of fraud will leave lots of markers that people will end up discovering.”
The type of “marker” Grimmer is referencing is the proof Tayub was in a position to cite: precise names and addresses for the individuals who have been drawn into the scheme.
Scaling a scheme just like the one in Millbourne to 1 that includes sufficient votes to swing a statewide or nationwide election can be laborious, Grimmer mentioned, as a result of it could contain so many individuals.
The perpetrators right here had entry to driver’s license numbers, which in line with the indictment they received straight from the voters. Allen, the county election director, mentioned he was unaware of every other fraud case the place voters gave out their private info like this.
Stephanie Singer, a former Philadelphia metropolis commissioner who was in workplace in 2016 when a poll field stuffing scheme orchestrated by a former congressman was occurring, has developed an algorithm that appears for anomalies in election ends in the hopes of catching tried fraud. Georgia is at present utilizing this system to watch its elections.
“Part of the job, not just of the board of elections, but of us as a democratic populace, is to guard against that,” she mentioned. “The people who win the elections have access to money and power, and that means it’s really tempting to cheat.”
These makes an attempt to cheat, even when they’re initially profitable at altering the outcomes, are incessantly caught, and election officers uphold these instances as examples of the safeguards working. Even so, the actual fact that they happen may help destroy belief in elections.
Incidents like these in Millbourne and in a 2018 North Carolina congressional race that required a brand new election can function a “proof of concept” for these already suspicious that election fraud is occurring, Grimmer mentioned.
He recalled a county elections assembly in Oregon the place he was making an attempt to counter factors made by a speaker who believed there was a broad conspiracy to steal elections, and cited an area incident from California for example.
“In that setting, I can explain that it’s very different than the kind of conspiracy he’s alleging,” he mentioned. “But if someone’s suspicious, all of a sudden it does reveal that it is possible to do this at least on a small scale.”
“If I’m not sufficiently persuasive in that meeting that it’s hard to scale this up,” he added, “you could see how this can further undermine trust” in election administration.
In Millbourne, the story isn’t over
Practically 4 years after the election fraud, and a month after the responsible pleas, a tense temper nonetheless hung over Millbourne’s five-member borough council.
Two members resigned lately for causes unrelated to the fraud case, which till lately left solely three members, together with Hasan and Ali. Regardless of their convictions, the boys refused to instantly resign, and weren’t legally required to take action. Sentencing is scheduled for June.
By staying in workplace, Hasan and Ali allowed the borough to maintain conducting council enterprise. With out them, the council wouldn’t have had sufficient members.
However latest council conferences have been marked by fraught exchanges over the matter.
Tom Kramer, the previous mayor of Millbourne, factors at Council Vice =President Md Nurul Hasan whereas studying an announcement throughout the Could 5 council assembly. Kramer pressed Hasan and council member Md Munsur Ali on why they hadn’t resigned following their responsible pleas.
The borough council constructing is a decent area. A sliding partition and assist pillar cut up the room between attendees and the U-shaped association of folding tables the place council members sit.
At an April 15 assembly, Kramer, the previous mayor, stepped in entrance of the pillar when it was his flip to supply public remark.
“I’d like to address our felonious council people,” Kramer mentioned, going through Hasan and Ali. “I wanted to ask if either one of you had any intention of resigning.”
The eyes of the opposite borough officers shifted to Hasan to see how he would reply.
Hasan, sporting a purple button-down shirt and grey jacket, seemed uncomfortable as he answered, shifting his toes and looking out across the room or down at his papers.
“Actually the court has a restriction,” he mentioned. “I don’t want to say anything.”
However on Could 13, borough officers confirmed that Hasan had formally submitted his resignation, although the council has but to just accept it.
As of Tuesday, Ali had not resigned.
Getting a public official out of elected workplace — outdoors of defeating them on the poll field — will not be easy, even when the official has pleaded responsible to a felony.
“It’s not just automatic,” James Gallagher, the borough’s solicitor, defined at an April assembly. He mentioned Hasan and Ali’s resignations can be “in the best interest of the borough.”
The state Legislature can impeach native elected officers, however not often makes use of that energy. The opposite possibility is a quo warranto motion, a authorized motion difficult a public official’s proper to carry workplace, usually introduced by the district lawyer or state lawyer normal.
Chris Cosfol, a resident of Millbourne, mentioned he desires the district lawyer’s workplace to deliver such an motion. The ordeal has been “embarrassing” for the borough, he mentioned, and he thinks the members ought to have robotically been faraway from workplace as soon as they entered a responsible plea.
Neither the district lawyer’s workplace nor the lawyer normal has but taken such motion.
Marketing campaign Motion
