LANSING, Mich., April 3, 2025 — The Michigan Department of State (MDOS) announced that, after an exhaustive audit, they identified only 15 probable non-citizens who The Michigan Secretary of State has referred 13 of these cases to the Attorney General for further investigative action and is continuing to investigate a 14th case for possible other fraudulent voting activity. One of the 15 has since deceased.

“Attempting to vote illegally is extremely rare. I commend Secretary Benson’s swift action to investigate and refer these allegations to AG Nessel for criminal prosecution. This audit is proof that Michigan’s election safeguards are working, and I look forward to their continued efforts to protect voters and expand voting rights” said state Rep. Tonya Myers Phillips (D-Detroit).

While only US citizens should be voting in our elections, today’s news is not an excuse for House Republicans to disguise their voter suppression agenda as voter protection. Our laws are working. It would be a step backwards to adopt policies that would disenfranchise thousands of Michigan voters, particularly people of color, seniors and married women whose names don’t match their birth certificate. 

“Fifteen allegations of voter fraud out of millions of votes cast does not give license to Michigan Republicans to disenfranchise millions of law-abiding citizens,” said state Rep. Stephen Wooden (D-Grand Rapids), who serves as the Democratic Vice-Chair on the House Election Integrity Committee. “These individuals have been identified and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In Michigan, we already make it easy to vote, hard to cheat and those who do, are brought to justice.”

Combined with the single case reported last year, just 16 votes out of more than 5.7 million cast, or 0.00028% of all votes, have been investigated for voter fraud. This data largely brings Michigan in line with numbers in other states.“The data shows that voter fraud is extremely rare — a poll tax is going to prevent more legal voters from exercising their right to vote than noncitizens,” said state Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth), who serves on the House Election Integrity Committee. “This is the law working — I applaud the SOS’s timely response and transparency to these serious cases, and I have full confidence in the AG’s ability to bring perpetrators of voter fraud to justice.” 

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