MI Secretary Of State Discovers 15 Possible Noncitizen Voters

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson discovered 15 likely noncitizens across the state voted in November’s election — but claims there’s nothing to worry about.

“[T]his illegal activity is very rare,” Benson claimed in an April 3 press release. “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.”

Benson previously claimed “there’s no evidence that noncitizens are voting.” But after comparing millions of active voter registrations to “active driving records” for voting-age residents, the Michigan Department of State found 15 individuals who “appear to be non-U.S. citizens and cast a ballot in the 2024 General Election.” 

While one “apparent noncitizen voter has since died” and another case is still being investigated, according to the release, 13 of these cases were sent to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for “potential criminal charges.” Though when a Detroit-area clerk implored Nessel to take action against pervasive election fraud, the attorney general did not reply — while she met with an alleged fraudster, as The Federalist previously reported. 

Benson’s office minimized the issue of noncitizen voters, saying they “represent 0.00028% of the more than 5.7 million votes cast by Michiganders in the presidential election.” Never mind that many elections throughout history were decided by just a handful of votes.

When a Chinese student at the University of Michigan allegedly cast his ballot, he used a student ID as allowed by Benson’s office. But when The Federalist asked her office for “Ann Arbor voter registrations … in which proof of identity was satisfied with a University of Michigan student ID,” a worker said it did “not possess records responsive to [the] request.” So Benson’s office not only issued guidance that enabled noncitizen voting with student ID, but apparently fails to keep a record of those registrations. And while the student faces criminal charges, officials still counted his ballot and delayed removing him from the voter rolls.

Benson has been a vocal opponent of election integrity in the past. She faced myriad lawsuits over issues including the state’s severely bloated voter rolls, last-minute poll worker restrictions, and guidance causing “thousands” of improperly processed ballots, as The Federalist previously reported. She also refused to tell Congress if dead registrants were still on the rolls.

Benson consistently worked with groups connected to “Zuckbucks,” which flooded leftist nonprofits with millions to boost Democrat turnout in 2020. The National Vote at Home Institute, which often conspired with the Center for Tech and Civic Life to meddle in elections, worked with Benson in 2019 to enable absentee voting without “legislative change.”

The left-wing Center for Election Innovation and Research, alongside CTCL, used millions in “Zuckbucks” to influence elections in 2020. In September that year, the group channeled $12 million to the Michigan Center for Election Law and Administration — which Benson led until that February. Her former group then sent $11 million to Democrat firms for “nonpartisan voter education,” according to InfluenceWatch. Benson continued to work with CEIR ahead of the November 2024 election. 

Benson claimed election integrity requires “a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.” But in the past, she barely even used a butter knife.

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.