New reporting suggests volunteers were not asking about citizenship
When a Chinese national student cast a ballot in the 2024 election, he did so after being prompted by a volunteer with a Democratic-backed group, according to a new report in The Federalist.
“According to documents obtained by The Federalist, a worker at the voting center — run by Democrat donors — encouraged Haoxiang Gao to vote,” Logan Washburn reported today. Washburn is a College Fix fellow.
Washburn obtained a police report, which included Gao’s account of what happened. He is currently facing two felony charges for false swearing to register to vote and an unqualified elector attempting to vote, as The Fix previously reported
Gao wrote:
It’s near election and you get asked to vote by volunteers everywhere you go on the street.
A lady asked me if I am here to register or to vote, before I said anything and was still figuring out what is the relationship between registering and voting, she passed me a form and a pen. I took it naturally without asking myself what I am doing, and start filling out the form.
He soon after turned himself in to the police after figuring out he had done something wrong.
As Washburn reported, the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s voting center is connected to two art school professors who are Democratic donors.
The Federalist reported:
Hannah Smotrich and Stephanie Rowden, associate professors at the Stamps School of Art and Design, ran the on-campus “election hub” at UMMA where Gao reportedly voted. Together, they have given more than $17,000 total to Democrats and leftist causes, according to OpenSecrets data.
Smotrich has given more than $12,000 to Democrats and leftist groups, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Sen. Raphael Warnock, and former President Joe Biden since 2020. And since 2017, Rowden has given more than $1,800 to such causes, including Slotkin and the left-wing group Voters Not Politicians.
The Fix previously asked the university about the affiliation of the organizers of the “one-stop shop” voting site.
“University employees, like all Americans, have the right to participate in our nation’s political process,” Jenna Bednar, faculty director of UMich Votes, told The Fix last November. “That includes the right to make political contributions. Doing so does not disqualify them from organizing non-partisan voter registration efforts.”
Officials counted Gao’s ballot because there was no way to identify which one he had cast.
Furthermore, officials only removed him from voter rolls in February even though the issue has been public since November.
MORE: Kentucky becomes latest state to ban DEI
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A person’s hand is shown placing a ballot in a box; Andrey Popov / Shutterstock.com
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.