During the 2024 election, a Chinese national’s vote was counted in Ann Arbor, in part because of the state’s lax voter identification requirements.

On Wednesday, incoming state House Majority Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, cited the incident as motivation for a plan he unveiled to prevent it from happening again.

“Not one American citizen should have their vote canceled out by a noncitizen,” Posthumus said in a statement cited by The Detroit News. “This is not and must not be a partisan issue. I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to immediately pass this constitutional amendment.”

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The Republican proposal is straightforward: amend the Michigan Constitution to explicitly require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and proof of identity to cast a ballot.

The legislative proposal requires support from two-thirds of members in both chambers to put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide. Alternatively, petitioners can collect 446,198 signatures to do the same.

While Posthumus is pursuing the former, a Committee to Protect Voters’ Rights launched a “Prove It Michigan” website this week to prepare for the latter.

“If Lansing doesn’t fix this, WE THE PEOPLE will,” the website reads. “If the Michigan Legislature won’t pass this constitutional amendment and put it to a vote of the people, we’ll launch a drive to collect the signatures it takes for voters to fix this once and for all.”

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The effort follows just weeks after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit announced perjury charges against 19-year-old University of Michigan student Haoxiang Gao, a Chinese national who attempted to retrieve his ballot after illegally voting in Ann Arbor.

Had Gao not reported himself, state election officials would not have known about the alleged crime, which was made possible by lax voting requirements that allowed him to use his UM student identification card to establish residency.

Gao allegedly attested under penalty of perjury he was a U.S. citizen, and his vote was counted in the 2024 contest because there is no means to retrieve it, elections officials said.

Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment known as Proposal 2 in 2022 amid a barrage of advertising that alleged the measure would require voter ID to cast ballots. Once approved, deceived voters realized the measure also included provisions that allow residents to circumvent that requirement with a signed affidavit.

Groups behind the 2022 ballot referendum are now attacking Posthumous’ proposal, with Voters Not Politicians Executive Director Jamie Lyons-Eddy suggesting to Michigan Advance that non-citizen voting is a nonissue driven by “nonsensical political posturing that risks disenfranchising eligible voters.”

“Michigan law already requires a photo ID to vote, and federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting,” she said. “I can’t understand why any elected official would want to undermine the will of Michigan voters by threatening to roll back the very same voting rights that voters across the political spectrum support,” referring to 2022’s Proposal 2.

It was the same schtick from Michael Davis, Jr., with Promote The Vote.

“Simply put, there is no evidence of widespread issues that would justify undermining our already-proven system, a system that is both secure and protects access to the ballot for all eligible voters,” he wrote in an email to Michigan Advance. “Any attempt to impose additional barriers to voting will disproportionately impact already-vulnerable individuals, those who are low-income, unhoused, new voters, and seniors.”

An analysis by Bridge Michigan found in 2020, 11,400 Michiganders voted in person without voter ID after signing an affidavit, with one in four involving Detroit voters. That year, 82 of the state’s 83 counties allowed voters to cast ballots without an ID, the analysis found.

“There’s definitely a balancing act between ensuring only Americans vote in American elections and … the simplicity that comes with the ability to register and the ability to vote,” Posthumus told Bridge Michigan. “To say this makes it complicated to do that – frankly, it’s an insult to citizens.”

Benson offered a lengthy statement to Michigan Advance in response to the proposal, alleging it “will prevent large numbers of eligible citizens from exercising their constitutional voting rights in the name of making it even more difficult and rare than it already is for a noncitizen to vote.”

Posthumus’ proposal would still allow voters to cast provisional ballots on Election Day without an ID, giving them six days to return with an ID to ensure their ballot is counted.

“Michigan’s voters have overwhelmingly passed constitutional amendments in recent years to ensure that eligible citizens aren’t denied their right to vote,” she wrote. “We should respect their will and focus our efforts on policies that actually improve security, such as a guaranteed source of state funding to ensure clerks have the resources they need for every election.”

Many folks in Lansing and elsewhere clearly disagree, with some posting support for the proposal on social media.

“Only citizens should vote in our elections. Seems pretty commonsense,” Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter, posted to X Wednesday. “But when a foreign nationals vote in our elections, and our top election official brushes it off, proposals like this are needed. Let’s get this done, @posthumus_bryan!”

National Republican figures including former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel also posted in support of the plan.

Democrats in Lansing, meanwhile, continue to push through lame duck legislation that would impose $15 million in added costs on taxpayers. The legislation, backed by Benson and the Democratic majority, would require ballots in many languages, codify curbside voting, expand access to voter data, allow ranked choice voting, and create new penalties for violations, prompting opposition from clerks across the state, Votebeat Michigan reports.

“If you told me a year ago that I would ever testify in opposition to anything called a voting rights bill, I would have laughed in your face,” Chris Swope, clerk for liberal Lansing who testified in committee on Tuesday on behalf of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks. “It’s a little bit sad to me that we are in this position.”