Despite FOIA, Benson Still Withholding Information about the 15 Noncitizen Voters

The only noncitizen charged escaped prosecution, fleeing to Shanghai . . . a year ago today!

By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor

January 19, 2026

A year ago today, 19-year-old Haoziang Gao, a Chinese undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, boarded a 10:05 a.m., non-stop Delta Air Lines flight (DL389) bound for Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Gao was fleeing two election-related felony charges in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

• Unauthorized elector attempting to vote.

• Perjury — Making a false affidavit for purpose of securing voter registration.

Using his student ID, Gao registered to vote and cast his illegal ballot on October 27, 2024, during early voting. The following day, he self-reported his action to the Ann Arbor city clerk’s office, the university police, and the Ann Arbor police.

Using a second Chinese passport with a different serial number from the one surrendered (not illegal), Gao passed TSA screening undetected and escaped the country.

Gao charged

Following the formal charges on October 30, in an official statement jointly released with Washtenaw County, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson claimed noncitizen voting was “extremely isolated and rare event.”

She had made the same bold statement, under oath, September 11, 2024, before the U.S. House Administration Committee. Then, just a few weeks later, in a case of nearly instant karma, Gao turned himself in as a noncitizen and an “unauthorized elector.”

In the joint statement, the two officials expressed their gratitude to “law enforcement for swiftly and thoroughly investigating this case.” When a defendant turns himself in, one would naturally expect the investigation to be swift.

The incident sent the State Department’s Bureau of Elections into a tailspin, masterfully captured by Anna Hoffman and James Dickson at the Michigan Enjoyer. FOIAed text messages revealed, “Not even Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state herself, can get ready access to accurate election data."

Gao wasn’t the only noncitizen voter in 2024

Under pressure from legislative inquiries, Benson’s Department of State began a statewide investigation. After four months, on April 3, 2025, Benson produced a follow-up report “confirming” her longstanding belief “that credible cases of noncitizens voting in Michigan elections are extremely rare.”

However, Benson was forced to disclose the existence of 15 other credible cases of noncitizens voting. The report said 13 of the 15 were referred to Attorney General Dana Nessel for potential prosecution. Notice, Benson’s report says nothing about the number of noncitizens registered (itself a crime) but who did not vote.

Demand for more information on the 15 noncitizen voters

No further information was given about the other 15 noncitizens voting. “We could not let that stand,” said Michigan Fair Elections Institute (MFEI) Founder and Chair Patrice Johnson in a telephone interview. “What if the 13 criminal referrals were all from one county? What if the majority were international students? Those facts would be important. We also need to know more about how Secretary Benson conducted her investigation.“

Johnson continued, “Imagine if we learned a significant percentage of the 13 noncitizen voters referred for prosecution were students from Ingham County where Barb Byrum is clerk and is running for secretary of state or if they were from Macomb County where Anthony Forlini is running for the secretary of state.”

When it comes to international students, Johnson’s concerns are not unfounded. According to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2025 Report (covering the 2024-25 academic year), there are 39,710 international students enrolled in the state of Michigan.

An election integrity investigator out of North Carolina recently reported to MFEI her data findings “revealed high registrations at universities and homeless centers with notable mentions of Duke University and UNC Wilmington. Confirmed non-citizens are being removed, with significant votes from non-citizens since 2016.”

And speaking of Forlini, the Macomb County Clerk recently made nationwide headlines when he revealed on January 12 that over a four-month period, 239 noncitizens were found in the jury pool, fourteen of them were registered to vote, and at least one has voted several times.”

“If, in a small sample, Forlini found 14 noncitizen registrations, and at least one had voted several times, imagine that scenario multiplied across 83 counties,” Johnson observed.

On April 14, 2025, MFEI sent the Department of State a FOIA request, asking for the following information:

1. The jurisdictions of the 15 noncitizens that SOS Benson announced voted in the Nov. 2024 election. 

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

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

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

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

When the Department of State refused to provide the information requested under FOIA, MFEI filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit prompted a response in early December. “What we received from Secretary Benson was extremely limited so that lawsuit is actually ongoing,” explained Johnson.

One fact is evident. More than a year after 15 noncitizens voted in Michigan’s November 2024 Presidential election, no charges have been brought against any of the state-identified noncitizen voters. The investigation of Gao’s case may have been “swift,” but the investigation of the other 15 noncitizen voters has been slowed to a snail’s pace.

Meanwhile, Gao remains a fugitive with an international arrest warrant issued.