If Republicans want to win Michigan in 2026, they need to put election security on the ballot.
As the result of a ballot measure passed in 2022, Michigan has the mother of all voter ID loopholes. A voter who is asked to show ID and has none can sign an affidavit, attesting they can vote legally. It’s literally just checking a box.
We learned this week why it’s best to demand proof, not pinky promises, when a 19-year-old Chinese national voted in Ann Arbor.
Over the last 20 years in Michigan, we’ve seen that candidates don’t win races. Candidates bundled with ballot initiatives win races.
Whether it’s conservatives pushing to ban gay marriage in 2004 or Democrats pushing to free the weed in 2018, he who asks the question wins the election.
Whitmer swept into office in 2018 with the help of election reform and legal pot. She won re-election on the back of limitless abortion.
The model is proven. Republicans have their issue to drive turnout in 2026, if they dare to pounce on it. Election security. Giving the 10 million of Michigan faith that our legal adults are the only ones voting in our elections. Right now, we don’t know that.
It’s bad that a Chinese citizen was allowed to vote in America because no ID was required.
It’s worse that the vote will count because it has been tabulated. (To trace a vote that’s already been cast is to pierce the concept of the secret ballot altogether. If they can find his, they could find yours.)
The worst part is this: The illegal voter was only caught because he self-reported. He tried to get the ballot back.
Any bad actor, foreign or domestic, learns three things from reading this story:
- Anyone can vote illegally in Michigan if they’re willing to sign an affidavit. Lack of citizenship and/or identification is no barrier to voting.
- Any illegal vote in Michigan that’s cast will count.
- An illegal voter won’t be discovered if they do not self-report.
If Xi Jinping himself set out to stir up swing-state doubts of election security, would he do anything different? That the illegal voter is from China only drives the point home: You have reason to doubt whatever result you hear next week.
Listen close, and you’ll hear what Election Barbie, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, is not saying. The watchdog of Michigan’s election system just saw the mother of all loopholes exploited a week before Election Day.
And she’s never said Michigan needs to close it. Instead, she pretended that the system works, that this was an isolated event, a single bad actor. Nothing to see here.
She said: “Noncitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event. Investigations in multiple states and nationwide have found no evidence of large numbers of noncitizens registering to vote. Even less common is a noncitizen actually casting a ballot. When it does happen, we take it extremely seriously. Our elections are secure, and Michigan’s state and local election officials carefully follow the law.”
“Our elections are secure” was offered without evidence.
Donald Trump won Michigan by about 10,000 votes in 2016. This is not an academic matter. One illegal vote has kicked the door of illegality wide open. It invites the world to walk through.
By the time illegal voters are discovered, if they are, the votes will already be processed and counted. Anyone willing to do the time won’t find any resistance to doing the crime of illegal voting.
Since Michigan can’t stop bad actors on the back end, it must stop them on the front end. If you are who you say you are, you better have an ID to prove it, or you can’t vote. As it is at the dispensary, or buying booze, or even sending a package at FedEx.
The spirit of ’26 demands elections we can believe in.
Now who in Lansing will say so?
James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.
