Chinese Student at University of Michigan Charged with Illegally Voting in 2024 Election; Prosecutors Say He Fled to Shanghai
On June 3, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced that a criminal complaint had been filed charging Haoxiang Gao, a citizen of China attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan, with false claims to register or vote and voting by aliens.
According to the complaint, Gao illegally registered to vote in the days before the 2024 presidential election, apparently using his University of Michigan student ID, and then cast a ballot at a polling location at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The complaint further alleges that he made false statements regarding his citizenship on his voter registration application and his early voting application. After being charged with state offenses, a state court granted Gao a $5,000 personal bond with conditions including that he not leave Michigan and that he surrender his passport.
Prosecutors said Gao did surrender a passport, but on January 19, 2025, the day before the new administration took office in Washington, he jumped bond and fled the country on a flight bound for Shanghai, China. Customs and Border Protection records show that he passed through Detroit Metropolitan Airport security using a Chinese passport bearing a number different from the one he had surrendered to University of Michigan police. On May 30, 2025, a related complaint was unsealed charging him with the federal offense of flight to avoid prosecution.
U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. said illegal voting is a serious crime that casts doubt on elections and disenfranchises U.S. citizens by diluting their power at the ballot box, and that the charges should send a message to foreign nationals, including students at U.S. universities. Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Detroit Field Office, said the FBI treats all allegations of voter fraud with the utmost seriousness. The FBI is investigating the case. Prosecutors noted that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.
(Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan)
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于密歇根州沃什特诺县安娜堡市的密歇根大学艺术博物馆外景，高某被指在此处的投票点投下选票。Chris Rycroft 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan, where Gao allegedly cast his ballot. Photo by Chris Rycroft, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
