Jocelyn Benson Has a Foreign Voter Problem

It was idea laundering and damage control, all at once, when Politico wrote: “Noncitizen voting is rare. Why is Washington so focused on it?”

For years, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson had discussed illegal foreign voting as if it were the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster. As if a figment of our imagination. So it was in September 2024 when Benson testified before Congress.

The Republican-led House was worried about illegal voting and the threat it poses to the body politic. Benson was worried about the threats to herself.

The alleged threats, that is. For six years, Benson has insisted that armed protesters showed up outside of her home after the 2020 election. But in 2020, Detroit Police said there were no armed protesters.

Election officials, Benson said, were forced “to endure threats, harassment, false and malicious attacks on our character and integrity.”

Benson continued: “I need you to be on notice that unsubstantiated allegations and rhetoric without evidence makes our elections less secure because they erode the public’s confidence in our elections and harm those charged with protecting our election systems.”

Going into the 2024 presidential election, this was Benson’s closing argument. When people asked whether Michigan’s election systems are secure: Of course they are, and only a conspiracy theorist would say otherwise.

The very next month, reality struck, and the narrative of secure elections was shattered.

In Ann Arbor, a Chinese man named Haoxiang Gao had voted. And his vote counted. The sanctity of the private ballot meant there was nothing Benson or local election officials could do about it.

In September, Benson warned of “unprecedented threats to our election system, including some from highly sophisticated, foreign government-aligned entities.” In October, a Chinese man voted, and his vote counted. Everybody’s worst fear was realized.

But to hear the Democrat-Media Alliance tell it, Haoxiang Gao’s vote wasn’t proof of a breach in Michigan’s election integrity. It was proof that the system worked—an illegal vote was cast, and the voter was then caught, and punished.

But that’s not what happened. Gao was not caught, he turned himself in. And he was not punished—he fled back to China before he could face justice.

He left on Jan. 19, 2025, the day before President Donald Trump started his second term.

But if you read the Politico story, there is nothing to see here in Michigan.

“Noncitizen voting in the U.S. is extremely rare,” Politico assures, “and state election offices conduct regular assessments of their voter rolls to curb risks of voter fraud.”

You don’t have to look hard to see the fingerprints of Jocelyn Benson allies smeared all over the Politico story.

The piece is undergirded by a report from the Center for Election Innovation and Research, or CEIR. It was founded by a liberal political operative named David Becker.

Becker also founded the Electronic Research and Information Center, or ERIC. ERIC is a multi-state effort meant, in theory, to compare and cull voter rolls. Benson joined Michigan in ERIC in Jan. 2019, her first week in office. Seven years later, Michigan’s voter rolls haven’t been culled, they’re bloated with 500,000 more people than the state has adults.

In Sept. 2020, CEIR granted $12 million to Benson’s nonprofit, the Michigan Center for Election Law and Administration. CEIR’s latest report, which tries to minimize non-citizen voting, acts as an in-kind donation to Benson.

If it were just Benson, Becker and CEIR doing the lifting, this would be damage control. Politico joining the effort makes it idea laundering. Here’s how it works.

First, Benson says non-citizen voting is not a thing—or if it is, it’s minimal.

Second, her friend at a supposedly “nonpartisan” nonprofit joins her in minimizing the threat.

Third, Politico amplifies the CEIR report.

And just like that, Jocelyn Benson’s meager self defense is rebranded and elevated as Truth. Now it was not just Benson saying it, not just Becker and CEIR saying it. Now Politico had joined them in saying: Sure, a few noncitizens vote, but what’s the big deal?

The big deal is, the loophole Gao exploited—same-day registration in a state that does not demand proof of citizenship—is still wide open.

CEIR writes of Michigan: “In short, while proper investigations do reveal instances of noncitizens who have registered to vote or cast a ballot, such instances are rare, detected by election officials, and prosecuted by the proper authorities.”

But Gao was not caught. He was not detected by election officials, and he was not prosecuted. In the case of the illegal voter from China, none of the safeguards meant to assure us worked.

As for the other 15 illegal foreign voters, there wouldn’t have been a review at all if not for Gao turning himself in.

Another 10,000 foreigners could do this again in May to affect a millage or in November to tilt the governor’s race. And if they don’t turn themselves in like Gao did, they won’t be caught.

Going into the 2026 election, Jocelyn Benson has a foreign voter problem. All of Benson’s allies and all of Benson’s penmen aren’t enough to make non-citizen voting seem like a myth again.

Politico just tried its level-best to minimize Benson’s biggest barrier to a promotion. That it felt the need to say it means that illegal foreign voting is Benson’s biggest weakness.

Foreigners are able to vote in Michigan because Jocelyn Benson wants it that way.

Come November, she will supervise her own election.