Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that Democrats were responsible for a Chinese student in Michigan who illegally voted in the presidential election and was subsequently arrested and charged last week.

Cruz made the remarks during the most recent episode of his “Verdict” podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson while talking about the incident.

“Well, it’s infuriating. And understand why this happens,” Cruz said. “This happened because the Democrats in Michigan passed a law, their voter ID law allows people to show a current student photo ID card from an educational institution in order to vote.”

“Now the only problem is, you don’t have to be an American citizen to get a student ID,” he continued. “In this case, you had a Chinese national who was from China. He had a student ID, he could be a student that’s allowed, but Chinese nationals are not allowed to vote in American elections, and yet, this individual did so.”

Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office revealed two charges against the 19-year-old student, who was not identified, in a statement on Wednesday.

The Chinese student reportedly contacted the local clerk’s office after voting and asked if he could get his ballot back. The Detroit News reported that “two sources familiar with Michigan election laws” said election officials cannot retrieve the illegally cast ballot after it went through a tabulator, a rule that prevents ballots from being tracked back to specific voters.

Cruz noted that Democrats voted against the SAVE Act in Congress which would have required that every person registering to vote in the election prove that they are a U.S. citizen.

“And yet, part of the one of the reasons the Democrats voted ‘no’ is they claimed, ‘oh, this is not a problem, no non-citizens vote,'” Cruz said. “Well, tell that to the Chinese national who just voted in Michigan.”

He said that the key for Republicans now was to turn out voters as the highest level possible so that no matter what happens, Republican candidates will win because the margin for victory is large enough.

The Chinese student was charged with perjury — making a false statement on an affidavit for the purpose of securing voter registration — and being an unauthorized elector who attempted to vote.

Attempting to vote as an unauthorized elector is punishable by up to four years in prison while perjury can result in up to 15 years in prison.

WATCH:

It is infuriating that a Chinese foreign national voted in our election.

The SAVE Act would have prevented this by requiring people to prove their citizenship in order to vote.

It’s basic commonsense, and that’s why Democrats opposed it.https://t.co/GcKMQ342lE pic.twitter.com/98jPIxqZnQ

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 3, 2024