This article was updated on October 31 at 1:35 p.m. PT.
A Chinese student at the University of Michigan is facing charges after he allegedly used his student ID to vote.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit confirmed the incident in a joint statement, saying, in part, “Only U.S. citizens can register and vote in our elections. It is illegal to lie on any registration forms or voting applications about one’s citizenship status. Doing so is a felony.”
They claimed that “[n]oncitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event. Investigations in multiple states and nationwide have found no evidence of large numbers of noncitizens registering to vote. Even less common is a noncitizen actually casting a ballot. When it does happen, we take it extremely seriously. Our elections are secure and Michigan’s state and local election officials carefully follow the law.”
According to The Detroit News, the 19-year-old student registered to vote with his student ID and provided documentation establishing his residency in the state. He is not a U.S. citizen.
The student’s ballot is expected to be counted in the election.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Andrew McCarthy told Fox News that ballots do not have an “identifying PIN number or other kind of identifying information that would enable somebody afterward to figure out who voted for whom” in order to maintain secrecy.
“But what it means is if the person passes the identification and qualification aspect of the early voting and gets to fill out the ballot, the ballot then goes into a tabulator, and it gets counted because there’s no way to go back and retrieve it and say, ‘this is the ballot that shouldn’t have been voted,'” he added. “And that’s the problem here.”
The Chinese national has been charged with perjury, making a false statement on an affidavit for securing voter registration, and being an unauthorized elector. The former charge carries up to 15 years in prison, while the latter may receive a fine up to $2,000 and four years in prison.
“Democrats are responsible for letting this Chinese national illegally cast a ballot in our elections,” Michigan House Republican leader Matt Hall told The New York Post. “Michigan Democrats have ripped away crucial election security measures over my objections, and Democrats in Washington have blocked the SAVE Act that would keep noncitizens from voting by requiring proof of citizenship. Only U.S. citizens should vote in American elections, but because of Democrats, this foreign national was able to just sign a form and vote without providing proof of citizenship.”
