You need verified id to register to vote. Not just a checkbox.

He registered to vote, which means he had to provide an ID. You don't have to be a citizen to get an ID.

He signed a document indicating that he was a citizen.

They don't check citizenship when you vote, so how would they have known to set it aside? It was only discovered when he tried to get the ballot back.

It’s not the honor system.

Then what's the purpose of registering in the first place?

If we don't have to go through the process of proving we are eligible to vote by registering before we vote, why don't we just skip registering and just vote without a registration?

In Michigan, you also have to sign a document that says you're a citizen. The student signed said form claiming he was a citizen, and he obviously isn't.

They probably don't check everyone because instances of fraud of this type are extraordinarily rare.

...then why aren't we proving citizenship during registration?

Without citizenship, there is no eligibility.

It would be a waste of time and resources to check citizenship status for every single voter because instances of this type of fraud are vanishingly rare.

When Michigan was debating adding the citizenship question to the voter registration process in 2012, the SoS reported that they had found exactly two cases, two people from Canada who had registered as citizens.

In my state of Virginia I did have to present my naturalization certificate to register the first time.

Not all of us can quickly lay our hands on our passport or our birth certificate. This would be enough to discourage people from registering and voting. I think Repubs would gladly add this requirement.

They whine even when there is no fraud, so one instance won't matter.

He's facing significant prison time, and one instance would prove nothing. As I noted before, instances of this type of fraud are extraordinarily rare, probably because the penalties can be quite severe.

So, because we're all worried what the GOP might do, we should make the voting process even more complicated, cumbersome, and time-coming for something that's a one-in-eight-million circumstance? That's ridiculous.

Maybe we should just stop giving a shit what the GOP might do.

Look, please don't be mad at me, I'm a Democratic voter, not a rightwing goper trying to screw with the election.

And yes, after what they already did on January 6 2021, I do give a shit about what the gop will be trying to do this time.

Why do it in the first place? Then call attention to yourself?

I also remember talk a few years ago about Chinese spies infiltrating universities. Maybe I'm just paranoid about this stuff.

If nothing else, it's evidence that this person is not a spy. A spy would not be so stupid, right?

Either way, the illegal vote still counts

They probably don't check citizenship for everyone because instances of fraud of this type are extraordinarily rare, probably because the penalties can be severe.

Or do they typically check most everyone but decided not to check this individual? Ann Arbor is hardly East Podunk

When they were debating adding the citizenship pledge to the process, the SoS noted that an initial review found two non-citizens registered to vote, a pair from Canada.

A review of around 60,000 found 45 non-citizens who'd voted. It was claimed that there could be as many as 4,000 non-citizens registered to vote in the entire state by proponents of adding the pledge, though the number who actually tried to vote would be a fraction of that.. Michigan has 8.4 million registered voters.

The pledge is pointless. Citizenship was already a requirement and is noted as a requirement in every state. Adding the pledge was just a GOP stunt and another excuse to baselessly claim that the process isn't secure.