Benson’s Staff Scrambles to Count MI’s Noncitizen Voters
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
Data experts tell us what their text messages reveal
By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor
April 23, 2025
On Sept. 11, 2024, Secretary of State Jocelyn testified before the U.S. House Administration Committee saying, “There is no evidence noncitizens are voting. If they were it would be easy to prove since voting records are public.”
In her testimony, Benson made three claims, all of which proved to be false.
1. There is no evidence of noncitizens voting.
2. If they were voting, it would be easy to prove.
3. It would be easy to prove because voting records are public.
On October 28, 2024, Benson had to walk back her claim there is no evidence of noncitizens voting when a Chinese national presented himself to authorities confessing he had illegally registered to vote and cast a ballot on the same day during early voting. It is a ballot that to this day remains part of the 2024 general election vote count.
On that same day, Benson learned she was wrong on the second claim, that it would be easy to prove noncitizens weren’t voting. Under the gun to provide a statement before the incident leaked to the press, Benson reaches out to her staff for numbers to bolster her position.
From text messages (below) requested through the Freedom of Information Act by the Detroit News, we have a behind-the-scenes look at how difficult it is for Michigan’s Secretary of State, the chief election official, to gain access to basic, election information.
JOCELYN BENSON I need to know the number of active registered voters who don’t have a license or ID affiliated with their record.
And if possible we need to know the number in the universe who voted in 2020.
Just for raw data right now please. |
So Benson is asking for the Qualified Voter File (QVF) to be filtered on three data points: (1) registered voters, (2) who are active and (3) who don’t have license or ID affiliated with their record. Sounds easy enough, right? But Benson’s simple question puts her staff into a tailspin.
Chief of Staff Tina Anderson delivers the bad news. Turns out, evidence about noncitizen voting isn’t so easy to come by after all.
TINA ANDERSON We did look at that a few months ago. It’s a multi-day query because the data set is so large. It takes a large number of hours from critical people to run. Jonathan [Brater] and I have talked about the data a few times and it’s worth talking through before we make the request, because the data is complex and may not be very helpful.
What do we want to use it for? We might have info that can address the same question that is not that exact request |
Later, Director of Elections Jonathan Brater chimes in with more bad news.
JONATHAN BRATER We need to be prepared for a statement without a number. We can’t get an accurate number immediately, it is a very complicated query that takes many hours minimum. I agree with Tina that raw number is not likely to be helpful. |
A number of interesting things arise from this exchange. First, in the FOIAed text thread, five people are involved: Jocelyn Benson, Tina Anderson, Jonathan Brater, Chief Communication Officer Angela Benander, Chief Legal Director Mike Brady, and Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie. None of these individuals are data specialists. So in a moment of crisis about data, Secretary Benson consults with no data experts.
Benson takes the word of Brater and Anderson that the three-point data query is “complicated,” “complex,” “will take a large number of hours,” will involve “critical people to run,” and in the end, the results will be unhelpful.
Benson’s staff is telling her what appears to be a simple three-data point query of the QVF is actually going to be complicated to devise, will take hours to run, and will involve more than one critical staff member.
In the end, Brater tells Benson she’s going to have to put out a statement in response to the Chinese student illegally voting without any numbers.
Michigan Fair Elections Institute (MFEI) contacted Tim Mauro-Vetter, co-chair of MFEI's Data Evaluation Election Processes (DEEP) team, and asked if he could provide the data Benson was looking for. DEEP’s analysts have been examining Michigan election data since 2021.
“I can give you the number of registered, active voters, but the QVF that is available to the public includes no information about driver’s licenses, citizenship, or photo ID. That data simply is not available...to the public,” Mauro-Vetter said.
He went on to say, “If the state had the data and made it public, I could provide the information in under a minute.”
As proof, Mauro-Vetter went to his computer and filtered the QVF for the first two data points Benson had requested –- registered voters with an active status. He was able to provide a number in 0:38 seconds.
Earlier this month, Benson released, exclusively, her “months long” review of noncitizen voting to a reporter at the Detroit News. She claimed she could find only 15 instances of noncitizens voting; but that number itself was incorrect as it failed to include the Chinese student.
Based on the tiny bit of information Benson provided about how she arrived at her final number, it appears her methodology was flawed.
According to Anna Hoffman and James Dickson at enjoyer.com, “Benson’s review only accounted for non-citizen voters with a driver’s license. That’s different from proving that 5.7 million voting Michiganders last year were U.S. citizens, minus these 16. And it's leagues different from proving that only 16 noncitizens voted in November. Illegal aliens with no driver’s license would not appear in the CARS database." Dickson cited the Customer and Automotive Records System for noncitizen driver's license holders as one source for identifying noncitizen voters, although questions exist as to whether people recorded in this database are required to provide proof of legal presence.
So how many noncitizens voted in 2024? It’s anybody’s guess. As Hoffman and Dickson write, “The standard is zero.”
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