A 19-year-old Chinese national and University of Michigan student was arraigned in a district court in Washtenaw County on charges he filed a false affidavit to register to vote and illegally voted in this year’s general election.
Haoxiang Gao, 19, was arraigned last week in Ann Arbor’s 15th District Court on a pair of felony charges, according to court records. Records show that Gao “stood mute” during the Nov. 8 hearing.
Magistrate Elisha V. Fink set a $5,000 bond for Gao during the hearing. He is scheduled to reappear in court for a probable cause conference at 9 a.m. on Nov. 21.
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Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit did not initially identify the student on Oct. 30 when they announced the charges “filed against a non-U.S. citizen.” If convicted of perjury, the more serious of the charges he is facing, Gao faces up to 15 years in prison.
According to the Detroit News, the student used documentation, including a university student identification, to establish his residency in Ann Arbor and register to vote. According to the report, he identified himself as a U.S. citizen on a signed document, and after voting, his ballot was submitted.
Only U.S. citizens can register and vote in federal elections. Although it is illegal for noncitizens to vote, Gao’s ballot will likely count as elections officials cannot retrieve it from the “tabulator” once cast, the Detroit News reported. It’s likely Gao would have never been caught had he not attempted to retrieve his ballot in order to rectify his misdeed.
According to reports and state officials, Gao cast his ballot on Oct. 27 at an early voting location in Ann Arbor on the University of Michigan’s campus. The Detroit News, citing the Secretary of State’s office, reported Gao contacted the clerk’s office, inquiring whether he could retrieve his ballot.
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The clerk referred the case to law enforcement.
“Through a series of actions, the student was apparently able to register, receive a ballot and cast a vote,” The Detroit News quoted Ann Arbor City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. as writing in an email. The “student was fully aware of what he was doing, and that it was not legal.”
As news of the illegal voting broke, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a statement announcing that “an independent, parallel investigation into this matter” had started. An office spokesperson did not respond to a Wednesday inquiry about the status of the investigation or possible next steps.
News of the Wolverine State’s alleged illegal vote was a popular discussion topic on social media amid ongoing concerns about illegal votes and voter fraud nationwide.
While Michigan officials sought to tamp down concerns and said the state’s election infrastructure is safe, former Michigan Secretary of State and current state Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, said there are tens of thousands of people whose name, date of birth and Social Security numbers do not match Social Security records.
Johnson, who served as Michigan’s secretary of state from 2011 to 2019, called on her successor to explain an uptick in the number of possible noncitizens registering to vote. According to Johnson, there have been 34,535 Michigan voters whose information does not match federal Social Security information.
“That is a huge increase from previous years and very alarming to me,” Johnson said in a statement. “Far-left operatives have pushed for changes in our constitution and laws that allow for same-day registration with no ID and our clerks do not have the ability to check or verify citizenship.”