A Chinese national studying at the University of Michigan is facing serious charges after officials say he voted this past weekend in the battleground state.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit announced the charges against the student on Wednesday. They did not name the student.
Reporting from the Detroit News, part of the USA TODAY Network, identified the student as a 19-year-old from China who is legally in the U.S. but isn’t a citizen, and therefore ineligible to cast a ballot,
The voter registered to vote on Sunday using his identification from the University of Michigan signed a document identifying himself as a U.S. citizen and his ballot was entered into a tabulator, the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office told the Detroit News.
“We’re grateful for the swift action of the clerk in this case, who took the appropriate steps and referred the case to law enforcement,” according to a joint statement from Benson and Savit….
While voter fraud grabs headlines when it does occur, it is rare, according to election experts. Of 42 voting jurisdictions in the 2016 election, officials only referred 30 suspected cases of noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes cast, according to research from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.