By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor

August 18, 2026

Almost two years ago, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told Congress her state had no problem with noncitizens voting. Her testimony from that day is now infamous.

"There is no evidence that non-citizens are voting," Benson testified before the House Administration Committee on September 11, 2024. "If they were, it would be easy to prove since voting records are public."

In an incident of almost instant karma, just a few weeks later, on October 28, 2024, University of Michigan safety officials approached a Chinese student named Haoxiang Gao. They had gotten reports he'd unlawfully cast a ballot. Gao confessed. Two days later, on October 30, the state charged him with two felonies. In January 2025, Gao, who had been forced to surrender his passport, jumped bond and fled back to China using a second Chinese passport with a different serial number.

On Friday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced six new charges related to Michigan elections: five noncitizens are charged with registering or voting illegally in the 2024 general election, and one U.S. citizen is accused of registering her noncitizen husband to vote.

As of August 2026, the attorney general's office has looked at 38 noncitizen-voting cases. Six people have been charged. Ten cases were closed without charges. Twenty-two remain under review. The pool of 38 cases does not include a person who died before charges could be considered or Gao's case.

Benson’s 2024 claims that noncitizen voting is "extremely rare" sound much less defensible, as does her claim those charges are “easy to prove.”

Where the six were charged

Michael Akioya, Kimberley DiDonato, Harumi Michael, and Basanth Sadasivian were all charged in Oakland County. Robert Piva was charged in Macomb County. Alondra Harker was charged in St. Joseph County.

So four of the five noncitizen cases — 83 percent — landed in a single county. Michigan Fair Elections Institute (MFEI) anticipated there might be a geographic pattern behind noncitizen voting.

On April 3, 2025, Benson released a press statement: "Michigan Department of State Review Confirms Instances of Noncitizen Voting Are Extremely Rare,” and revealed 15 newly identified noncitizens were suspected of voting in the 2024 election.

On April 15, 2025, twelve days later, MFEI filed a FOIA request, asking for more details. According to documents shared from MFEI, the FOIA request asked for the following data:

• The jurisdiction of the 15 noncitizens that SOS Benson announced voted in the Nov. 2024 election.

• All documentation as to how they voted: whether same day registrations, early, Absentee Ballot, or in person.

• All documentation related to investigations regarding noncitizen registrations or voting.

• All documentation related to how the noncitizen voters or registrants were identified.

• All Documentation showing that these noncitizens have been removed from the voter rolls.

“We believed there might be helpful patterns in the data we requested, patterns that could reveal areas of weakness in our system of voting. With five of the six people charged coming from one county, our instinct to look for a pattern has turned out to be potentially helpful and worth investigating.”

Since Gao's case surfaced in a university town, MFEI wondered if noncitizen voting might cluster around Washtenaw County’s large international population. Instead, the data the state just disclosed shows a concentration in Oakland County. But with 22 cases still under review, the data is limited.

At least so far, MFEI's instinct the data would reveal some geographic pattern — rather than a random scatter across Michigan's 83 counties — turned out to be correct. Which county turned out to be the pattern, however, was not what anyone expected.

The information the state didn't want to give up

MFEI’s FOIA request went nowhere. By August 4, 2025, MFEI, through attorney Thomas Lambert, had filed suit in the Michigan Court of Claims — Bennett v. MI Board of Elections — to force the issue. Case notes obtained by this publication show the fight dragged on for months, including repeated delays requested from the state.

MFEI was not the only party hitting this wall.

On July 21, 2026, attorney Sean T.H. Dutton filed a separate FOIA request with the attorney general's office, seeking the names of the 13 individuals MDOS had referred for prosecution, their case statuses, and any general policy document governing how the office evaluates noncitizen-voting referrals.

On August 12, 2026 — one day before Nessel's announcement — the AG's FOIA office responded. It disclosed information for the small number of cases that had already been charged. For the rest, it refused: "the Department has not charged 10 of the 13 people referred," the response read, citing the need to protect an open investigation, avoid tainting a future jury pool, and shield the privacy of people not yet charged.

Two separately represented parties, using two different legal strategies against two different state offices, spent more than a year trying to get basic facts about the same pool of cases. Both were told, in different ways, that the answers would come once charges were filed.

When noncitizens vote, there is no remedy. The vote can't be removed from the vote total. The illegal vote remains counted and cancels out a legal vote. Maybe yours.

This report draws on court filings, FOIA correspondence, and case records obtained by MFEI News & Commentary.