GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A non-U.S. citizen has been arrested and charged after illegally registering to vote and casting a ballot that will be counted in the 2024 election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

The 19-year-old Chinese international student at the University of Michigan falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen when he registered to vote and cast a ballot Sunday at an Ann Arbor early voting site, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw. County Prosecutor Eli Savit. He later called the secretary of state’s office and asked if he could get his ballot back.

However, the secretary of state’s office told News 8 sister station WLNS in Lansing that his ballot has already been tabulated and will be counted, despite being cast illegally — because election officials they have no way of finding him. The electoral process is designed to prevent identification of a voter’s individual ballot.

The international student was arrested and will be charged with attempting to vote as an unauthorized voter and perjury for making a false voter registration, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County District Attorney Eli Savit .

“Only US citizens can register and vote in our elections. It is illegal to lie on any registration forms or voting applications about your citizenship status. Doing so is a crime,” Benson and Savit wrote in a joint press release Wednesday.

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The clerk took “prompt action” and “appropriate steps,” the statement said, referring the case to law enforcement, who “quickly and thoroughly investigated this case.”

Michigan’s attorney general has also launched a separate investigation.

“Non-citizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event. Multi-state and national investigations found no evidence that large numbers of non-citizens registered to vote. Even less common is a non-citizen who actually votes. When it happens, we take it extremely seriously. Our elections are safe, and Michigan’s state and local election officials are scrupulously following the law,” the statement said.

Benson and Savit reminded people that voting records are public and that any non-citizen who tries to vote in Michigan will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

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