Americans are uneasy about how this election is going to go down. And this isn’t helping things at all.
Because this swing state shocked everyone with a massive ballot counting decision.
A Chinese national attending the University of Michigan now faces criminal charges for illegally casting a ballot – and yet, that ballot will still count.
Michigan’s Secretary of State has downplayed the incident as “an extremely isolated and rare event.” Yet, notably, it was the student who self-reported the illegal vote rather than election officials catching it themselves.
The student, a 19-year-old, is now charged with both perjury and illegal voting.
“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 been sounding the alarm on Michigan’s lax election security for years. For example, Michigan’s same-day voter registration doesn’t require identification – officials simply trust individuals to be who they claim.
Despite these risks, Theis agrees that retrieving a specific ballot after it’s cast is impossible and doesn’t think it should be; doing so would violate ballot secrecy.
“The ballot that you voted is sitting in a sleeve that’s not attributable to you,” Theis told the New York 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.”
Theis 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.”
House Republican Leader Matt Hall points to the illegal vote as proof of the need for stronger election safeguards.
“Democrats are responsible for letting this Chinese national illegally cast a ballot in our elections,” Hall 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.”
Once a vote is cast, it’s final, Theis explained, emphasizing that election security must start long before ballots are handed out.
“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.
A 2022 amendment approved by Michigan voters allows for “at least nine” days of early voting, starting this year on Oct. 26. A 2018 amendment also allowed no-reason absentee voting and same-day voter registration.
Theis argues that these amendments have created vulnerabilities. While Michigan voters may have expected that voter ID would become a requirement, the amendment left a significant loophole: anyone can get a ballot by simply signing an affidavit affirming their identity, with or without an ID.
In this case, the Chinese national who voted in Ann Arbor reportedly signed such an affidavit, according to officials.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
