State Rep. Jay DeBoyer today said additional follow-up and answers are sorely needed following a stunning announcement that a noncitizen successfully voted and had their ballot fed into a tabulator in Ann Arbor.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office announced charges Wednesday against a 19-year-old University of Michigan student from China who was not a U.S. citizen when he allegedly registered and cast a ballot at a university art museum that served as an early polling location.

Incredibly, the ballot that was cast is expected to count in next week’s election due to current election laws. In a House Elections Committee hearing earlier this term, DeBoyer, who serves on the committee, highlighted the impractical nature of charging an individual for fraudulently voting after their vote was already counted and impacted an election when the committee heard testimony from clerks from Ann Arbor and East Lansing about the state’s elections process, fraud, and potential reforms.

The announcement comes just weeks after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced felony charges against four individuals for allegedly voting twice in the August 2024 primary.

“The Secretary of State swoops in when these instances occur and makes defensive statements to protect her image and assure everyone that this is extremely rare,” said DeBoyer, of Clay Township. “But what tools does the SOS have at its disposal to be confident enough to even make that kind of statement? How do they know how many illegal votes are or aren’t being cast unless they catch them? When is the last time the SOS investigated voter rolls to see if any people on the rolls were not US citizens? All of these answers matter to people who expect and deserve a fair process.

“We also need more information about how this individual registered. Do we have a copy of his voter registration form? Did he go sign up under his own volition, or was he part of an effort to sign up voters by a group that wasn’t acting in good faith and jeopardized the integrity of our elections in the process? Trust in our elections system erodes when there is willful ignorance combined with inaction and we don’t get to the bottom of these types of questions. The Secretary of State must deliver transparency to people in our state.”

DeBoyer, who served as clerk and register of deeds for St. Clair County before coming to the Legislature and has over a decade of experience overseeing elections, also reiterated his opposition to radical efforts by Democrats this term to scale back challenged ballots and weaken voter ID requirements – key security measures that help prevent fraud.

“There are local races that can be decided by just a couple of votes,” DeBoyer said. “So while the state is asserting this is very limited in scope, the fact remains it can make all the difference for an election and give people less faith in the results when they have instances of noncitizen votes being counted. Situations like these are why we need a robust elections process that respects voters and our institutions.”