A Delco official who prosecutors say tried to steal a mayoral election faces additional criminal charges

A Millbourne official already charged in what federal prosecutors have described as a brazen — but ultimately unsuccessful — voter-fraud scheme now faces a parallel criminal prosecution by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office.

MD Nurul Hasan, 47, was charged Wednesday with 16 counts of unlawful voting, voter fraud, and related crimes, one count for each absentee ballot that prosecutors say Hasan illegally cast in a failed write-in campaign to become Millbourne’s mayor in 2021.

The fraud notwithstanding, prosecutors say, Hasan, vice president of the borough council, lost the mayoral race to Mahabubul A. Tayub by 30 votes. His attorney, Michael Dugan, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said in a statement that detectives from his office partnered with FBI agents in an “exhaustive investigation” after Tayub raised concerns before the election that people who did not live in Millbourne had recently registered to vote there.

“The bedrock principle of democracy is free and fair elections,” Stollsteimer said. “Millbourne Borough Councilman MD Hasan violated that principle in 2021 by stuffing the ballot box with illegal votes in an effort to win higher office.”

Hasan, a Democrat who lost the mayoral primary election in May of that year, waged a write-in campaign in the general election and sought to gain an unfair advantage with the vote scheme, prosecutors said.

He and two other Millbourne officials — council member MD Munsur Ali and former council member Rafikul Islam — recruited more than three dozen people who did not live in Millbourne to illegally register to vote in the November 2021 election, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Ali and Islam, along with Hasan, were indicted by federal prosecutors last week in connection with the scheme and charged with conspiracy and fraudulent voter registration. They do not face charges from Stollsteimer’s office.

The three men used driver’s licenses, Social Security numbers, and other information from voters to alter their voter registrations online, according to the affidavit. Some voters told investigators they willingly provided the information, while others said their registrations were changed without their permission.

Prosecutors wrote in court filings that Hasan knew this was illegal: He had filed a complaint before the May 2021 primary election after noticing that other voters on the rolls in Millbourne no longer lived in the borough.

Hasan and his coconspirators attempted to hide their tracks by having the ballots sent to multiple addresses, the affidavit said. They filled out the ballots on behalf of the voters whose registrations were altered and forged their signatures, the affidavit said.

County detectives spoke with Hasan in October 2021 after Tayub, his opponent in the general election, filed a complaint about the illegal voter registrations.

At the time, the affidavit said, Hasan said he would “no longer register nonresidents,” but detectives later found he ignored their warning and continued to do so up until the general election.