How a Chinese National Came to Vote in Michigan

Is it possible that other noncitizens voted in the 2024 election?

By James Dickson

February 4, 2025

How did a Chinese citizen come to vote in the Nov. 5 election? Same-day voter registration, lies on his paperwork, and a student ID card, Michigan Enjoyer can report exclusively.

In Michigan, voters who don’t show ID can sign a form attesting that they are who they claim to be. The University of Michigan student, Haoxiang Gao, signed the form.

But that’s not the story he first told authorities, according to an email from Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry. Michigan Enjoyer obtained the email through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Here’s how it went down, according to Beaudry, who explained the entire ordeal in an email to Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney Eli Savit, Michigan Department of State Elections Director Jonathan Brater, and CC’ing multiple City of Ann Arbor officials.

Email screenshot reading "Mr. Savitt and Director Brater:
I am writing to officially report that I am aware of potential voter fraud by a non-U.S. citizen. A Chinese Green Card Holder, Haoxiang Gao, a student at the University of Michigan, registered and early voted yesterday, Sunday, October 27 at the UMMA Early Voting site. After tabulating his vote, Mr. Gao called the City Clerk's Office asking questions about the rights of Green Card Holders to vote. When he was informed it was not allowed, he said he thought someone had done this at UMMA.
We immediately called our team at UMMA and they had no details on anyone using any photo ID to register or vote other than an MCard, Driver's License or U.S.
Passport. The same person, Mr. Gao, called back about 20 minutes later and confessed to Rachel Rickinger in the Clerk's Office that he was in fact the person who voted and that he lied on the forms and attested to being a U.S. citizen. He did at first
indicate he used the Green Card at the site. We informed him that in the 14-day voter registration window, we make notes of the residency and Photo ID used to register and our records indicate that he showed an MCard and his Wolverine Access to prove local residency. We have copies of the voter registration form that both includes a checked box and an affirming statement of citizenship. We have the application to vote as well. I have the names of the City Clerk staff who registered him and the poll worker who took the application to vote and issued the ballot.
The student just stopped by the City Clerk's Office this morning. He let me know that he proactively called both U-M DPSS and AAPD. I will reach out on the City side to AAPD to determine if indeed he filed his own police report. The student was very upset and I informed him that the City can not assist him and I suggested he find his own legal counsel. I believe he may have already reached out to U-M for legal support.
Please let me know what additional details you require from the City Clerk's Office regarding this matter.
Best,
Jackie Beaudry
Jacqueline Beaudry, City Clerk (she/her/hers)
A200
ANN ARBOR BICENTENNIAL"

On Sunday, Oct. 27, Gao registered to vote, and voted.

Then he called the Ann Arbor city clerk’s office and asked about the rights of green-card holders to vote. The clerk’s office advised him there are no rights, that people with green cards can’t vote. Gao told the clerk’s office he had heard of someone doing this at U-M.

When the clerk’s office called the voting site at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, workers there said nobody had voted using a green card. They had used driver’s licenses, passports, or MCards, the U-M student ID. But no green cards.

Gao called back 20 minutes later, Beaudry wrote, and admitted that he was the person who voted improperly. To prove local residency, Gao had used his MCard and his directory entry in Wolverine Access, an online resource portal.

“We have copies of the voter registration form that both includes a checked box and a statement affirming of citizenship,” Beaudry wrote. “We have the application to vote as well.”

Beaudry sent the email on October 28, 2024, after Gao had stopped by the city clerk’s office. He claimed to have called Ann Arbor police and the University of Michigan Department of Public Safety earlier to report himself.

Beaudry reported that Gao was “very upset,” and office staff suggested he seek his own legal counsel.

A December 10 FOIA request to the City of Ann Arbor, however, which requested the total number of voters who registered to vote by voter method, was denied as “the records do not exist.”

Why doesn’t the City of Ann Arbor want to provide voter registration method data? Is it possible that other noncitizens voted in the 2024 election?

James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.