Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced criminal charges against five non-citizens accused of voting in the November 2024 general election, as well as a U.S. citizen accused of registering her non-citizen husband to vote.
The charges follow referrals from the Michigan Department of State, which sent 16 cases of suspected non-citizen voting in the 2024 election to the Attorney General’s office in 2025.
An additional 22 cases involving suspected non-citizen voting or related conduct spanning elections from 2009 to 2025 were referred in 2026. Out of 38 total referrals, six have resulted in criminal charges, 10 have been closed without charges, and 22 remain under active review.
Those charged include:
Michael Akioya, 39, of Oak Park: A lawful permanent resident accused of registering to vote in 2016 and casting an absentee ballot in the 2024 general election. He is charged with false statement on an absent voter ballot application and false statement on an absentee vote ballot return envelope, both 90-day misdemeanors. Arraigned on May 13, his next court appearance is set for August 25.
Kimberley DiDonato, 60, of Rose Township: A U.S. citizen accused of posing as her lawful permanent resident husband to register him online in April 2024, before contacting the local clerk to cancel it in May. DiDonato claimed she intended to test system vulnerabilities. She is charged with election forgery, a five-year felony, and using a computer to commit a crime, a seven-year felony. Arraigned on June 25, her preliminary examination is scheduled for August 20.
Alondra Harker, 26, of Three Rivers: A limited-term alien resident accused of registering and voting in-person in 2024. She is charged with fraudulent registration, a 90-day misdemeanor. Arraigned on July 7, her pretrial conference is set for September 10.
Harumi Michael, 60, of Wolverine Lake: A lawful permanent resident accused of registering in 2024 and voting in-person in Commerce Township. Charges include two counts of election law forgery (five-year felonies), one count of an unqualified elector attempting to vote (four-year felony), and one count of voter registration false statement (90-day misdemeanor). Bound over to Circuit Court on June 3, her pretrial conference is set for August 27.
Robert Piva, 67, of Roseville: A lawful permanent resident accused of registering online in September 2024 and voting early in-person in October 2024. Piva stated his vote was an experiment regarding voter fraud. He faces charges of election law perjury (five-year felony), unqualified elector attempting to vote (four-year felony), and fraudulent registration (90-day misdemeanor). Arraigned on August 12, his next court date is August 26.
Basanth Sadasivian, 29, residing in the United Kingdom: Accused of using a Bloomfield Hills address to register and vote in 2024 via the Federal Post Card Application system. Sadasivian is charged with one count of an unqualified elector attempting to vote, a four-year felony.
“In my office, we’ve always taken election crimes seriously, and prosecute attacks on our voting systems to the fullest extent of the law,” Nessel said in a statement. “We’re upholding election integrity by investigating all claims of non-citizen voters, as rare as they are, and holding bad actors accountable when they refuse to abide by the laws that keep our elections safe and secure.”
State investigators declined to file charges in 10 other referred cases. In four of those, state officials confirmed the voters were either U.S. citizens, held legal status through specific adoption or treaty provisions, or lacked accessible citizenship documentation from federal authorities.
“While the question of whether any given resident is a citizen may feel simple, some cases are nuanced in unexpected ways,” Nessel said. “The federal government has not always provided easy or open access to certain necessary citizenship records, and so our investigators had to spend considerable time and effort coaxing cooperation from the federal agencies.”
In six other closed cases, investigators determined they could not prove the voters intentionally broke the law, citing statutory protections against prosecuting individuals registered through human or administrative error.
“Determining the point and manner of registration is essential for many of these cases because prosecuting residents over registrations made by agency error, when they made no false statement, is expressly prohibited by statute. If the government then encourages their vote or application for a ballot based upon that registration, entrapment by estoppel becomes a viable defense,” Nessel added.
State officials confirmed that voter registrations linked to all identified non-citizen voters in the investigation have been canceled. Review of the remaining 22 open cases is ongoing.
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