Overview
- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged six people on Thursday with election offenses tied to the 2024 general election, alleging five non‑citizens voted and one U.S. citizen registered a non‑citizen spouse.
- The office named the defendants — Michael Akioya, Kimberley DiDonato, Alondra Harker, Harumi Michael, Robert Piva and Basanth Sadasivian — and detailed felony and misdemeanor counts that vary by case.
- Voter registrations linked to every identified non‑citizen in the review have been canceled, 10 referred cases were closed without charges, and 22 of the 38 reviewed referrals remain under active investigation.
- Some defendants have told investigators their actions were tests or experiments, and Nessel said slow or limited federal cooperation with citizenship and immigration records complicated the probes.
- The prosecutions are likely to shape state‑level debates over proof‑of‑citizenship rules, federal matching systems for records access, and how prosecutors distinguish paperwork errors from intentional fraud as cases move through local courts.