MI Election Dept. ‘Does Not Possess’ Record Of Student ID Voters

When a Chinese national allegedly voted illegally in November’s election, officials only caught it because he turned himself in.

Gao faces two felony charges: false swearing to register to vote and an unqualified elector attempting to vote. But officials still counted his ballot and kept him on the voter rolls until finally removing him by February, according to Qualified Voter File data from Check My Vote.

A get-out-the-vote center at the University of Michigan Museum of Art — run by Democrat donors, as The College Fix reported — counted Gao’s ballot. The Ann Arbor City Clerk’s office and the Creative Campus Voting Project partnered to operate the center.

“[I]n the 14-day voter registration window, we make notes of the residency and Photo ID used to register and our records indicate that he showed an MCard and his Wolverine Access to prove local residency,” wrote Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry in documents published by Michigan Enjoyer. “We have copies of the voter registration form that both includes a checked box and an affirming statement of citizenship.”

The Michigan secretary of state’s office issues guidance on acceptable forms of ID to vote, instructing officials to accept a “[s]tudent photo ID card from an educational institution.” But clearly, this — and requiring voters to check a box attesting to citizenship — still allows noncitizens to vote.

Opaque Recordkeeping

Since Beaudry admitted her office took notes of residency and photo ID used to vote, The Federalist filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the students who voted with an “MCard” or “Wolverine Access” from Oct. 22 to Nov. 5. As student IDs allow noncitizens to register or vote — as shown in Gao’s case —  these records could reveal other noncitizen voters.

Beaudry’s office confirmed it had the documents — but The Federalist would have to pay nearly $1,500 to access them.

A clerk’s staffer told The Federalist that ID information is on voter registrations, recorded on individual pages with sensitive information that needs redaction prior to release. She said it would take three hours to sort through voter registrations to find those with a student ID and 27 hours of redacting — at 30 seconds per page, for nearly 3,200 pages — before releasing the documents. “I would need to redact every single social security number and/or driver’s license number, phone numbers and emails,” the staffer wrote. 

This brought the estimated total to $1,466. Before the clerk’s office could even process the request, it would require half of that fee paid up front as a deposit. 

When The Federalist inquired about a more simple list with the names of registrants or voters who used a student ID (to reduce the cost), the staffer said, “That is not a record that exists, unfortunately. The records that exist are individual voter registration forms.”

Who Is Keeping Track?

To avoid exorbitant fees, The Federalist turned and sought these records from the Michigan Department of State. Since the local clerk recorded the forms of ID on individual registrations, it made sense that Democrat Secretary Jocelyn Benson’s office might also track this information for identifying instances of voter fraud or noncitizen voting — especially seeing how student ID allegedly enabled a Chinese national to vote. That was not the case.

The Federalist requested any and all Ann Arbor voter registrations from October 22 to Nov. 5, 2024, in which proof of identity was satisfied with a University of Michigan student ID (“Wolverine Access” or “MCard”).

The FOIA coordinator for the Michigan Bureau of Elections denied the request, saying that “the Department does not possess records responsive to your request.” She said officials “would have to create a document in order to answer this” and “the Department is not obligated to conduct research or create records in order to respond to a request.”

Benson’s office claims online that “only U.S citizens can vote” and “[t]here is no evidence to support claims that large numbers of noncitizens have voted.” 

“[T]he name of everyone who registers or votes in an election is a public record — it would be very easy to see if noncitizens were registering or voting in large numbers,” Benson’s website reads.

But the student ID loophole appears to have allowed a Chinese national to vote in November’s election — and no one caught this until he turned himself in. The state apparently does not keep a reasonably accessible record of ID provided when registering or voting, and the local clerk’s method of record-keeping makes citizen oversight virtually impossible. So, in Michigan, who really ensures only citizens are voting?

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.