International student arrested, charged for voting in Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A non-U.S. citizen was arrested and charged after he illegally registered to vote and cast a ballot that will be counted in the 2024 election, the Secretary of State’s Office said .

The 19-year-old Chinese international student from the University of Michigan falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen when he registered to vote and cast his ballot at an early voting site in Ann Arbor on Sunday, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw. Attorney General Eli Savit. He later called the Secretary of State’s office and asked to have his ballot returned.

However, the Secretary of State’s office told WLNS, News 8’s sister station in Lansing, that his ballot had already been tabulated and will be counted despite being cast illegally — because election officials have no way to track it . The election process is designed to prevent a voter’s individual ballot from being identified.

The international student was arrested and will be charged with attempting to vote as an unauthorized voter and perjury for creating a false voter registration, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit.

“Only American citizens can register and vote in our elections. It is illegal to lie about someone’s citizenship on registration forms or voting applications. Doing so is a criminal offense,” Benson and Savit wrote in a joint press release on Wednesday.

How election officials secure the ballot boxes in Grand Rapids

The clerk took “quick action” and “appropriate steps,” the release says, referring the matter to law enforcement, who “quickly and thoroughly investigated this matter.”

Michigan’s attorney general has also launched a separate investigation.

“Non-citizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event. Research in multiple states and across the country has not found that large numbers of noncitizens have registered to vote. Even less common is for a non-citizen to actually cast a vote. If it does happen, we take it very seriously. Our elections are secure and Michigan state and local election officials are closely following the law,” the news release said.

Benson and Savit also reminded people that voting records are public and that any noncitizen who attempts to vote in Michigan will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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