Michigan review finds 15 probable non-US citizens who voted in November

LANSING, Mich. — A months-long review by the Michigan Secretary of State's office has identified 15 individuals who allegedly are not U.S. citizens but still cast ballots in the November presidential election in Michigan.

The findings, released Thursday to The Detroit News, indicated the potentially illegal votes represented less than 0.0003% of the 5.7 million total ballots submitted. But the data could add fuel to an intensifying debate taking place inside the Michigan Capitol and around the country about whether officials need to do more to ensure that zero non-citizens are voting in U.S. elections.

The 15 people uncovered by the new review are in addition to the University of Michigan student from China, Haoxiang Gao, who allegedly voted illegally in Washtenaw County in October. Gao is already facing felony charges of perjury and of being an unauthorized elector who voted. The latter charge can bring a penalty of up to four years behind bars.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office said after its analysis of state voting records, it's referring 13 of the 15 individuals to Attorney General Dana Nessel for further investigation and potential charges. The 14th individual died after November, and the 15th is facing additional scrutiny by the Secretary of State's office for other unspecified fraudulent voting activity.

Benson spokeswoman Angela Benander described non-citizens voting in Michigan as a "serious issue." But she said officials need to "address it with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer."

"We believe it’s the government’s job to verify voter citizenship," Benander said. "This review shows we can do that without saddling citizens with expensive and burdensome requirements.

"Instead of failed policies that block U.S. citizens from legally casting their ballot, we will continue to work with lawmakers on ways to improve the system while ensuring that Michigan’s elections are highly secure, fair and accessible," Benander added.

Dozens of Secretary of State staffers worked on the review, which began in December and appears to be the widest probe of non-citizens voting that has occurred in Michigan in years. Staff checked information from the qualified voter file on who cast ballots in November against details from state driving records on non-citizens who legally obtained driver's licenses.

Staff did multiple rounds of review, attempting to ensure the individuals voted and to verify their citizenship status, Benander said.

The Secretary of State's office has also established an ongoing review process and is working with Michigan legislators to put the process into state law so the analyses continue under future secretaries of state.

The ongoing debate

In recent months, Benson, a Democrat who's running for governor, has opposed a proposal backed by Michigan Republicans to require that voters show proof of U.S. citizenship to register and show photo identification to cast a ballot.

State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, introduced a resolution in January to amend the Michigan Constitution to require, beginning Dec. 18, 2026, that people present "documentary proof" of their citizenship to register or that they have their citizenship verified by the Secretary of State's office.

If someone's citizenship status can't be confirmed before they vote, they must cast a provisional ballot that will not be counted until they provide proof of citizenship, under the resolution.

“No citizen should ever have their vote canceled out by a non-citizen voting the opposite direction,” Posthumus said in January.

Benson previously said similar proposals in other states have been deemed unconstitutional or "blocked tens of thousands of eligible voters from casting their legal ballot in an election."

In a social media post on Thursday, Posthumus contended state officials have "no idea" how many non-citizens voted in November.

"And now that everyone knows the loophole exists, how many more if we don't close it," Posthumus said.

The Secretary of State's office provided few details about the 15 individuals who allegedly voted illegally in November because the investigations into their actions are ongoing.

The incidents appear to be isolated and scattered across the state, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Because the review was based around Secretary of State records, it's likely the individuals were in the U.S. legally because they were granted driver's licenses or other state IDs. To get a driver's license in Michigan if you're not a U.S. citizen, you must be legally present in the country with a valid visa or employment authorization, according to the University of Michigan's Student Center.

The vast majority of Michigan voters register through their driver's license or a state ID, which were the focus of the new review. However, Michigan voters also have the option of showing a driver's license from another state, another government-issued ID, a U.S. passport, a military ID, a tribal ID or a student ID.

That's why Gao, the Chinese student who allegedly voted illegally in November's election, and other voters likely weren't part of the new review. He used his University of Michigan student ID and other documentation establishing residency in Ann Arbor before signing a document falsely identifying himself as a U.S. citizen and entering his ballot into a tabulator in the fall, according to state and local election officials.

Text messages among state officials from late October, obtained by The News, showed Benson's reaction to the news that a non-citizen had voted illegally in Washtenaw County. She urged staff to communicate to the public that it was "not widespread" and consequences would be "swift and significant."

"Dana and I talked earlier also want to weave in — you’re going to see significant consequences unfold for this gentleman, that should be a deterrent," Benson wrote in one text message, referring to Nessel, the attorney general.

In another message, Benson said election officials should put the situation on Gao "as a liar and a lawbreaker not us."

Chris Thomas, who served as Michigan's elections director for longer than three decades, said he wasn't surprised by the findings of Benson's review. There have been indications, in the past, of people unintentionally registering to vote, he said.

Often, the actions are because of misunderstanding, through cultural differences or language barriers, and not because of people attempting to be intentionally devious and beat the system, Thomas said.

“15 people don't appear in this case to have affected (the election outcome) one way or another," Thomas said. "So I think it’s substantially clear that U.S. citizens made the decision."

Thomas said state leaders have to find a balance between trying to prevent non-citizens from voting and not disenfranchising people who have the legal right to vote because they simply can't track down their birth certificate or don't have time to verify their citizenship status with the state.

How it compares

The findings from Benson's office appear to reflect the results of similar reviews done by Republican election officials.

In March, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, announced his office had audited Iowa's voter registration lists and found that 35 non-citizens cast ballots that were ultimately counted in the 2024 general election. Iowa used data from its state transportation department and information from the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to reach its conclusion.

In August 2024, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, announced that his office had identified 597 individuals in his state who registered to vote despite not being citizens of the United States. Registering to vote is a different threshold than casting a ballot.

LaRose's analysis included checks against records provided by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Homeland Security’s federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements information, the Social Security Administration and federal jury pool data.

"The fact is it's rare," LaRose told a U.S. House committee in September of non-citizens voting. "But we keep it rare by enforcing the law."

Benson appeared at the same Sept. 11 hearing as LaRose.

"There is no evidence that non-citizens are voting," Benson said at the U.S. House hearing. "If they were, it would be easy to prove since voting records are public."

In 2012, then-Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican, oversaw a review of Michigan voting records. Johnson said she documented 54 non-U.S. citizens as having voted, according to the Lansing-based political newsletter Michigan Information & Research Service.

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