State officials said Gao’s vote had already been tabulated and it was impossible to retract.
Michigan had granted Gao a $5,000 personal bond on the condition that he surrender his passport and not leave the state, but Gao boarded a flight to Shanghai on Jan. 19, one day before the new administration was set to take office. He used a Chinese passport with a different number from the one he surrendered.
Federal prosecutors revealed last week that Gao had fled the country when a complaint was unsealed on May 30, charging him with fleeing prosecution.
“Illegal voting is a serious crime that casts doubt on our elections and serves to disenfranchise United States citizens by diluting their power at the ballot box. But illegal voting by a foreign national who is from a country controlled by a communist party dictatorship–with no modern history or tradition of democratic government–is beyond the pale,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome Gorgon said in a statement on June 3. “I hope that today’s charges send a message to foreign nationals—including those who are students at our universities–that we will not tolerate illegal voting.”
The Epoch Times was unable to contact Gao for comment.
The FBI is currently investigating the case.
Gorgon also announced charges against two Chinese citizens for smuggling a pathogen into the United States with the potential of devastating food crops such as wheat, corn, and barley. Both defendants had worked at a university in Texas and the University of Michigan, and one of the defendants currently works at the University of Michigan.
