Chinese citizen charged with illegally voting in Michigan, authorities say

By Marshall Cohen, Pamela Brown, Zachary Cohen and Yahya Abou-Ghazala, CNN

(CNN) — Michigan prosecutors charged a Chinese citizen with voter fraud and perjury after he allegedly cast a ballot in the 2024 election, authorities announced Wednesday.

Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that the 19-year-old Chinese man who allegedly voted is a student who lives in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. Authorities said the man isn’t a US citizen, and therefore can’t vote in federal elections.

The announcement from Michigan’s secretary of state and attorney general, and local prosecutors in Ann Arbor, comes as former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies spread concerns about mass voting by non-citizens. Experts say illegal voting by non-citizens is extremely rare, and when it does happen, it is usually caught quickly.

The Chinese man – a student at the University of Michigan – cast his ballot on Sunday and then reached out to local election officials later that day in an attempt to get the ballot back, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The man registered to vote at the polling place on Sunday, the source said. He used his university ID and other documents to demonstrate his residency in Ann Arbor while filling out a same-day voter registration forms, the source said. The Detroit News first reported the details.

The suspect is legally present in the US, the source added. If he is convicted, he could potentially be deported over the incident, legal experts said.

“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,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, both Democrats, said in a statement.

They also said that “any noncitizen who attempts to vote fraudulently in Michigan will be exposing themselves to great risk and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Investigators in Michigan are still looking at whether this was an isolated incident, an accident or possibly part of an attempt by China to interfere in the 2024 election, and federal investigators are also looking into the matter, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is also a Democrat, said in a statement that her office has launched an “independent, parallel investigation” into the situation.

Authorities did not identify the Chinese student accused of voting in the election. He is facing one count of illegally attempting to vote and one count of perjury – both felonies.

It appears that the student’s vote can’t be nullified after the fact and will be counted.

Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum told CNN ballots can’t be retrieved once they have gone through the tabulator. Unlike vote-by-mail, ballots cast at in-person voting locations don’t contain any identifying information about the individual voter, making it impossible to determine which one belonged to the student, Kestenbaum said.

“There’s a box of ballots underneath the tabulator and all of the ballots — they all look the same … there’s no way to go back and undo it,” Kestenbaum said in an interview.

Experts said this is a standard election procedure to maintain secrecy.

“An in-person ballot is placed in a tabulator or ballot box, intermingled with other ballots. This is to preserve secrecy, so you can’t go into the ballot later and confirm who a particular parson voted for,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department voting rights official and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research.

After the charges were announced, Michigan GOP operatives and state lawmakers seized on the news to criticize Democrats for not requiring proof-of-citizenship to vote.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an election law expert at Stetson University, said this is one of the “downsides” of the secret ballot, which was instituted to prevent vote-buying.

Earlier in US history, different color ballots were sometimes used for different political parties, making it easier to meddle in the process. The secret ballot for in-person votes ensures “no one can trace a particular vote to a particular voter,” Torres-Spelliscy said.

“Plucking out an improperly cast ballot is basically impossible because it looks like every other ballot cast by an eligible voter,” Torres-Spelliscy, a CNN contributor, said, adding that the Chinese national who voted in Michigan “swore under penalty of perjury that he was an American citizen, thus this explains why poll workers would give him a ballot.”

When asked about the incident in a regular scheduled briefing in Beijing on Friday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they had “noted the relevant report.”

“The Chinese government has always required Chinese citizens overseas to abide by local laws and regulations and not engage in any form of illegal activities,” spokesperson Lin Jian said.

“At the same time, we also ask the United States to investigate fairly and in accordance with the law, properly handle the relevant case, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizen involved.”

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