This article was originally published at the Dearborn Press & Guide website, authored by Andrea Blum and can be found at the original page here.
Tuesday’s primary election proved to be a good one for incumbent city officials in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights as they all move on to compete for their offices in the Nov. 7 general election.
Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly, Jr. won 6,018 votes and advances to face Council President Pro Tem Thomas Tafelski, who garnered 5,266 votes, in November.
The other three candidates who were eliminated from the race are Jim Parrelly, who earned 1,725 votes, Hakim Fakhoury who won 454 votes and Edward Binkley with 71 votes.
For the Dearborn City Clerk’s position, former state Rep. George Darany won the most votes with 7,022 and moves on to challenge second highest vote-getter Nofila Haidar, who earned 2,744 votes, for the position in November’s race.
Three other candidates whose bids have ended are John Joseph Schimizzi, who won 2,229 votes, Ameer Yousef Abusalah, who earned 387 votes and Adam Alee with 307 votes.
Fourteen of the 16 candidates running for Dearborn City Council move on to compete for the seven open seats in November.
Those 14 are: incumbent Susan Dabaja (7,053 votes); incumbent Michael Sareini (6,632); Regan Ford (5,943); incumbent Brian O’Donnell (5,815); incumbent Robert Abraham (5,670); Leslie Herrick (5,324); incumbent David Bazzy (5,230); Erin Byrnes (5,158); Ken Paris (5,025); Sharon Dulmage (4,768); Sean Green (4,355); Nada Al-Hanooti (2,712); Fayrouz Bazzi (2,510) and Ramez Haidar (2,213).
The two lowest vote-getters — Ziad Abdulmalik with 1,412 votes and Rifaat “Mike” Hacham with 1,139 votes — were eliminated from the race.
A total of 13,718 of the city’s 60,965 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, representing 22.5 percent of voters.
Dearborn was one of seven communities in Wayne County to use new election equipment in the primary that is designed to be more reliable and capable of sending results to the Clerk’s Office through wireless transmission shortly after the polls close.
According to the city, the experience for most voters at the polls isn’t different with votes still cast by marking paper ballots and then securely inserting them into the voting machines to be tallied.
But disabled people are expected to have an improved voter experience by using an electronic tablet to vote if they choose.
In Dearborn Heights, incumbent Mayor Daniel Paletko earned the most votes with 3,051 and will face Councilwoman Lisa Hicks-Clayton, who garnered 2,117 votes, in the general election.
A third challenger, Eduardo Garcia, brought in 1,168 votes, but will not move forward in the race.
Eight of the 10 candidates for Dearborn Heights City Council will square off for the four open seats in the general election.
Moving on are Denise Malinowski Maxwell with 2,976 votes; incumbent Bob Constan (2,829); Bill Bazzi (2,470); Tom Wencel (2,447); Mo Baydoun (2,413); Lisa Oshanski (2,273); Jeff Mallad (2,009) and Ned Apigian (1,161).
Incumbent Thomas Berry, who withdrew from the race after the deadline, still appeared on the ballot and won 1,438 votes, meaning he also still moves on to general election despite not officially running.
Out of the race are candidates are Larry Mitchell with 991 votes and Ali Almuna with 474 votes.
The Dearborn Heights City Clerk and City Treasurer races were uncontested and did not appear on the ballot.
A total of 6,477 of the city’s 38,877 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday, representing 17 percent of voters.
