Chinese citizen charged after allegedly voting illegally in key battleground state; vote will be counted

A Chinese citizen, who attends the University of Michigan, was charged for allegedly voting illegally in the key battleground state of Michigan – and that student's vote will still be counted.

A spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Chinese citizen voted at a polling place at the University of Michigan Museum of Art on Sunday, Oct. 27.

The state's top authorities condemned the 19-year-old's actions, saying that since the man is not a U.S. citizen, he cannot vote in federal elections.

"Only U.S. citizens can register and vote in our elections. It is illegal to lie on any registration forms or voting applications about one’s citizenship status. Doing so is a felony," Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit wrote in a joint statement.

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Despite the fact that the Chinese citizen's ballot was cast illegally, it is expected to be counted in the upcoming election.

Andrew McCarthy, a Fox News contributor and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told Fox News Digital that it is expected to count because there is no way for election officials to retrieve it once it's been put through a tabulator.

"The thing is, because of the imperative of voter secrecy, the ballot does not have an identifying PIN number or other kind of identifying information that would enable somebody afterward to figure out who voted for whom," he said. "That's our dedication to the secret ballot."

"But what it means is if the person passes the identification and qualification aspect of the early voting and gets to fill out the ballot, the ballot then goes into a tabulator, and it gets counted because there's no way to go back and retrieve it and say, 'this is the ballot that shouldn't have been voted.' And that's the problem here."

McCarthy said that the hope is that there is "enough election security that this will happen few enough times that it won't affect the integrity of the results."

"But the other important thing, and I don't think there's enough of this, is it's a violation of both state law and federal law for an alien to attest that he is an American citizen for purposes of being allowed to register to vote," he said. "And then federally, at least, it's a crime for a non-American to vote, at least if it's done knowingly."

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"You've got to bring these cases because people have to be aware that there's a price to be paid if you vote illegally," he said. "And if you don't bring those cases, then you're not really being serious about election integrity."

The Chinese citizen, whose identity was not released, was charged with perjury after making a false statement for the purpose of securing a voter registration and with being an unauthorized elector who attempted to vote.

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According to Michigan law, the unauthorized elector charge is a felony that is punishable by up to four years with a fine of up to $2,000.

Democrat Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement that her office has launched an "independent, parallel investigation" into the situation.

McCarthy highlighted why he believes voting in-person on Election Day is best – and the most secure option.

"I think the safest way to vote and, frankly, the best way to vote, is on Election Day because it means that we're all voting with the same information," he said. "When you have people voting six weeks before the election, we're not even voting with the same information because a lot of important things happen in the run-up to the election."

"But more importantly, for the purposes that we're talking about, there was always a presumption in the law that said, for security purposes, we prefer that you come into the precinct on Election Day and vote. That's how we can secure it the best," he said. "What I think is terrible is we've not only gotten away from the idea that everybody should vote at the polls, but we're now taking the next step. If you vote remotely, and you make an error, that, you know, progressive Democrats decide it's trivial, even though it involves a procedure that's in place precisely to protect the integrity of elections, we should forgive that, or it should be the government's fault that you made the mistake."

"And I think that the position people ought to be taking, because this was always the position that was in our law, is come in and vote on Election Day. But if you don't want to vote on Election Day and you want to take advantage of these other means of voting, fine. But every jot and tittle of the rules is for you to comply with."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the University of Michigan, the Michigan Attorney General's office and the Department of Justice for comment.