Michigan secretary of state says non-citizens aren't voting, then finds 15 from November election

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), who previously claimed that non-citizens weren’t voting in her state, found that there were "15 credible" instances of non-citizens voting in Michigan in the 2024 November general election. Meanwhile, both the Michigan state legislature and the federal government are seeking to require proof of citizenship for voter registration, which Benson opposes.

Benson has repeatedly downplayed the problem of non-citizens voting in elections, even after more were found to have voted in the 2024 general election than previously assumed. Regardless of non-citizens voting, Benson claims that requiring citizenship proof to register to vote is unnecessary because there are other potential policies that could be effective.

In September, Benson told the House Administration Committee during an election integrity hearing, “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 election, 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."

Only two months later, according to local TV station WILX, the state discovered the non-citizens voting after a review of registered vehicles in the state was compared to voting records.

The review, released last Thursday, found that 15 non-citizens had voted and 13 of them were referred to the Michigan attorney general for potential criminal charges. WCMU reported that "of the two non-citizens who weren’t referred to the attorney general’s office, one has died, and the other is being investigated by the Michigan state department’s Office of Investigative Services."

The review comes on the heels of a Chinese foreign national student at the University of Michigan who turned himself in after allegedly being registered to vote and casting a ballot in the general election. The student has been charged with two felonies: false swearing to register to vote and trying to vote as an unqualified elector.

“This is a serious issue, one we must address with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer,” Benson said in a statement last week. “Only U.S. citizens can legally register and vote in our elections. Our careful review confirms what we already knew – that this illegal activity is very rare." The Michigan department of state highlighted that the 16 non-citizens who voted “represent 0.00028% of the more than 5.7 million votes cast by Michiganders in the presidential election.”

“While we take all violations of election law very seriously, this tiny fraction of potential cases in Michigan and at the national level do not justify recent efforts to pass laws we know would block tens of thousands of Michigan citizens from voting in future elections,” she continued. “Instead of those failed policies, we will continue to work with lawmakers on reasonable, data-driven efforts to improve security while ensuring that eligible citizens can always make their voice heard.”

Benson’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Attorney General Dana Nessel’s (D) spokesperson, Danny Wimmer, said in a statement following Benson’s announcement, “Attorney General Nessel is, of course, disappointed to learn any number of non-citizens were able to cast ballots in our recent elections, and Michiganders should be assured that those criminally responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Michigan House Speaker Pro Tempore Rachelle Smit (R) raised concerns about Benson’s September comments, contradicting the review that found non-citizens voted in the November election.

“It’s deeply troubling to me that our Secretary of State told Congress that non-citizens weren’t voting in our elections just a couple months before November,” Smit said in a statement on Monday. “Now she admits they are voting in our elections, and at least 15 of them had their ballots tabulated and counted. That’s 15 Michigan taxpaying residents who had their votes illegally canceled out by people who shouldn’t have been at the polls to begin with.”

Michigan House Rep. Bryan Posthumus (R), posted on X following the announcement of the non-citizen voters, saying, “First it was 1, now it's 15. The truth is, we have no idea how many. And now that everyone knows the loophole exists, how many more if we don't close it!”

Proof of citizenship, Voter ID

Posthumus is the primary author of a constitutional amendment requiring proof of citizenship and voter ID is working through the Michigan House. If the proposed amendment receives a two-thirds majority vote in both the state House and Senate, then Michigan voters will decide in the next general election whether to add it to the state constitution.

The proposed amendment would require voter ID for both in-person and absentee voting. If voter ID isn’t provided when someone votes in person, then that voter may cast a provisional ballot, allowing them six days after the election to return with an ID so that their ballot is counted. Also, the amendment would require people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship.

Benson, who is running for Michigan governor, opposes the constitutional amendment proposal.

In February, before the 15 non-citizen voters were discovered, Benson said the proposed amendment “would be taking a chainsaw to our election system when we’re trying to address one specific, isolated circumstance.” Instead, she said she would work with lawmakers to close loopholes that allowed non-citizens to vote, such as provisional ballots or extra verification for people who participate in same-day voter registration.

Benson also criticized the federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would also require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. While non-citizens are prohibited from voting in federal, state, and most local elections, municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont, and Washington, D.C., allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.

There are 15 states that allow only U.S. citizens to vote in their elections: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Michigan’s problem with non-citizens voting comes as the Republican U.S. House of Representatives is seeking to pass the SAVE Act again, after the lower chamber passed the proof of citizenship bill last year, but the Democratic Party-led U.S. Senate at the time killed it.

The SAVE Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) – also called the “motor voter” law – to make states require documentation of a person's U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections and to ensure that states remove non-citizens from their voter rolls. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reintroduced the SAVE Act in January, and it has been progressing through the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, last month, Trump issued an executive order on election integrity that included enforcing a citizenship requirement for voters in federal elections.

“To enforce the Federal prohibition on foreign nationals voting in Federal elections … Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Election Assistance Commission shall take appropriate action to require, in its national mail voter registration form … documentary proof of United States citizenship” and “a State or local official to record on the form the type of document that the applicant presented as documentary proof of United States citizenship,” the executive order reads.

Democratic attorneys general in 19 states filed a lawsuit last Thursday over Trump's executive order, arguing against the constitutionality of enforcing documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. The legal papers were filed in the federal District Court of Massachusetts.