A Chinese college student who is not a U.S. citizen cast an illegal vote on Sunday — and Michigan election officials will still count the vote.
The 19-year-old — who is legally present in the country studying at the University of Michigan but not a citizen — registered to vote on Sunday, having “signed a document identifying himself as a U.S. citizen,” according to The Detroit News. The student then cast a ballot which “was entered into the tabulator.” Ann Arbor City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. said in an email to council members that “based upon the scenario that we’re hearing this morning, the student was fully aware of what he was doing, and that it was not legal,” according to The Detroit News.
The student has been charged with “Unauthorized Elector Attempting To Vote” and “Perjury — Making a False Affidavit for Purpose of Securing Voter Registration,” according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
While noncitizen voting is illegal, the student’s vote will ultimately still count. That’s because ballots are secret, meaning names aren’t attached to the ballot itself. Once a vote is cast and run through a tabulator, it is impossible to identify who cast the ballot.
Yet Benson, in a joint statement with Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, still claimed that Michigan’s elections are “secure” and that “noncitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event.”
But just because something is “rare” doesn’t mean it’s not happening — or that steps shouldn’t be taken to prevent such an occurrence. Yet Democrats have fought Republicans on legislation meant to prevent a scenario like this. The Republican-led House passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to require prospective voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Such legislation would have prevented the 19-year-old Chinese national from registering (and voting) on Sunday.
It also would’ve prevented a recent incident that unfolded in Iowa in which Jorge Oscar Sanchez-Vasquez was charged for “registering to vote and illegally voting on the same day, July 16, 2024, in a special election for the Marshalltown City Council,” according to the state’s attorney general.
But Democrats — who keep insisting that a system that lets noncitizens slip onto voter rolls and illegally vote is “secure” — vowed to block the legislation. Republicans tried to tie the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded, but a majority of House Democrats, alongside 14 Republicans, voted against the stopgap bill.
So what’s keeping foreign citizens off the voter rolls and out of the ballot box? A small square box on the federal voter registration form requiring a prospective voter to attest under penalty of perjury that he is a citizen. Our “secure” elections hinge on the honor system.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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