The Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, recently confirmed that 15 non-citizens participated in the November 2024 general election.
According to Just the News, this discovery has triggered a debate and subsequent legislative efforts to intensify voter registration laws in the state.
In the election as mentioned above, a method that cross-referenced vehicle registrations with voter rolls was used to identify these non-citizens. Secretary Benson, a Democrat currently running for governor, has expressed her opposition to legislative proposals demanding proof of citizenship for voter registration.
Following the findings, 13 of the 15 voters were referred to the Michigan attorney general for potential criminal proceedings. The other two cases included a deceased individual and another still under investigation by the Michigan State Department’s Office of Investigative Services.
A particularly notable case involved a Chinese student studying at the University of Michigan, who self-reported his registration and vote in the election. He is now facing serious charges, including false swearing to register to vote and attempting to vote as an unqualified elector.
Benson has argued that these incidents are isolated, representing only 0.00028% of the total votes cast in Michigan’s presidential election, which adds up to over 5.7 million. She asserts that this minute number does not justify the strict laws currently being proposed.
Here's what Jocelyn Benson stated:
"We’re doing everything we can to ensure that non-citizens are not able to vote and that only U.S. citizens vote in our elections, and it’s working. There is no evidence that non-citizens are voting. If they were, it would be easy to prove since voter records are public. And despite numerous organizations spending a lot of money to try to convince people that non-citizens are voting, none of these groups have actually been able to provide any evidence of it."
Despite this stance, the U.S. House of Representatives has reintroduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, aiming to enforce proof of citizenship for federal elections. A similar mandate was also pushed through an executive order by former President Trump, which has led to lawsuits from Democratic attorneys general from 19 states questioning its constitutionality.
Michigan House Speaker Pro Tempore Rachelle Smit expressed concern over the secretary’s earlier testimony to Congress, where Benson stated that non-citizens were not voting, only to later acknowledge that at least 15 had indeed cast ballots. Michigan House Rep. Bryan Posthumus voiced on the social media platform X that the discovery of these 15 voters shows a potential loophole that urgently needs closing.
Danny Wimmer, spokesperson for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, assured that those found criminally responsible for voting illegally would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Benson maintains a critical stance towards wide legislative measures, which she believes could hinder the voting rights of tens of thousands of Michigan residents. She encourages data-driven security enhancements that do not compromise eligible citizens’ ability to vote.
In her official communications, Benson emphasized the importance of precise and evidence-based approaches to addressing these rare occurrences of election fraud. She advocates for scrutinizing individual violations rather than overhauling the voter registration system in a manner that could disenfranchise many.
As debates unfold and legal battles commence over voting requirements, Michigan stands at the forefront of a national conversation on how best to secure electoral integrity without infringing on democratic rights. These developments are critical as they reflect broader national issues surrounding voter accessibility and election security.
In conclusion, while the discovery of non-citizen voting in Michigan highlights potential vulnerabilities in the electoral system, it also sparks a larger dialogue on how to appropriately balance security measures with ensuring broad voter participation.
