A 19-year-old international university student from China who is not a U.S. citizen—and accused of illegally voting in Michigan—reportedly asked for his ballot back after casting it, according to local news outlet WLNS-TV Channel 6.
On Wednesday, Washtenaw County prosecutor Eli Savit and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson published a joint statement regarding the incident: “Following an alleged violation of the law involving a non-U.S. citizen voting at an Ann Arbor early voting site on Sunday, October 27, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office has authorized criminal charges.”
The male student attends the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his name has not been made public.
Voters cast early ballots for the general election at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, city clerk’s satellite office on the campus of the University of Michigan on November 7, 2022. An international university student from China is charged with illegally registering to vote and casting a ballot in Michigan.
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
He’s accused of falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen when he registered to vote on the same day he cast his ballot, WLNS reported. The student was charged with one count of attempting to vote as an unauthorized elector and one count of forgery in order to register to vote.
“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,” the joint statement continued.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit make a joint statement on the charges filed against a non-citizen for allegedly illegally registering to vote and casting a ballot in the 2024 General Election: https://t.co/EbcL5c6iEh pic.twitter.com/toimSaT4yj
— Michigan Department of State (@MichSoS) October 30, 2024
Newsweek reached out to the secretary of state’s press team, the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office and the Michigan attorney general’s office for comment via email on Wednesday evening.
Benson’s office told WLNS that the student’s ballot was put through the tabulator and will be counted in the coming general election, as once ballots are processed, it is not possible to retrieve them.
The joint statement added that “noncitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event.”
The charges in Michigan were leveled as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, along with his allies, raise concerns of mass voting by noncitizens.
Michigan, with its 15 Electoral College votes, is a key battleground state for Trump and Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris.
As of Wednesday evening, the state was in a near deadlock, with polling aggregations from 538, The New York Times and Nate Silver‘s Silver Bulletin showing Harris up by just around 1 percentage point, while The Hill aggregate shows an even tighter race, with Harris up by 0.3 points, 48.5 percent to Trump’s 48.2 percent.
As of Wednesday evening, 538’s forecast model predicts Harris has a 59 percent chance of winning the state, while Trump is at 41 percent.
President Joe Biden won the state in 2020, flipping it from Trump, who narrowly won it in 2016.
