Michigan will count ballot of Chinese national charged with voting illegally

DETROIT — A Chinese national studying at the University of Michigan faces criminal charges after voting illegally — but the vote will still count.

While the Michigan secretary of state portrayed the 19-year-old’s illegal vote as an “an extremely isolated and rare event,” the vote was self-reported, not ferreted out by election officials. The student is charged with perjury and voting illegally.

“The student’s ballot is expected to count in the upcoming election — although it was illegally cast — because there is no way for election officials to retrieve it once it’s been put through a tabulator, according to two sources familiar with Michigan election laws. The setup is meant to prevent ballots from being tracked back to an individual voter,” the Detroit News reports.

GOP state Sen. Lana Theis has warned of Michigan’s election-security shortcomings for years. Same-day voter registration does not require an identification; election officials take people’s word they’re whom they claim to be.

Despite the vulnerability, Theis agrees there is no way to retrieve a ballot once it is cast and doesn’t think there should be — the ballot would no longer be a secret.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says there’s no way to retrieve the illegally cast ballot. AP

Theis explained that if election officials could retrieve this particular ballot, matching a specific ballot to a specific voter, they could retrieve any. And that would be the end of the secret ballot as we know it.

“The ballot that you voted is sitting in a sleeve that’s not attributable to you,” Theis told The Post. “It’s in an envelope that’s kind of a blank envelope but the numbers sticking out of the top. So they pull off that perforated piece, and now this thing cannot be identified to you at all in any way. That’s your secret ballot.”

She added: “Once it goes through the machine, there’s no way to identify it, to track it back to you, which is necessary in order for you to have your secret ballot.”

Matt Hall, House Republican leader in the Legislature, said the illegal vote points to a need for additional election-security measures from Congress.

“Democrats are responsible for letting this Chinese national illegally cast a ballot in our elections,” he said. “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.”

After a vote is cast is too late, Theis said. Election security begins much earlier, when voters are registered, and continues before they’re handed a ballot.

“The recourse is prior to their registration, and then verification at the time they get their ballots, all of which we have weakened,” Theis told The Post.

Michigan voters approved a 2022 constitutional amendment that allowed for “at least nine” days of early voting. This year, early voting started Oct. 26.

And voters approved a 2018 constitutional amendment to allow for no-reason absentee voting and same-day voter registration.

Theis argues voters were misled about how the amendment would treat voter ID. Rather than strengthen it, the amendment weakened it.

A Chinese national voted illegally at the University of Michigan, but the vote will still count, officials said. AFP via Getty Images

While voters were led to believe the amendment would make voter ID a requirement in Michigan — but it left a loophole: Anyone who signs an affidavit attesting to his or her identity will be given a ballot, ID or no ID.

The Chinese national who voted in Ann Arbor signed such an affadavit, officials admit.

Verification needs to come on the front end, Theis said, before a ballot is cast.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office did not respond to a request for comment.