Macomb Clerk Finds 10 New Non-U.S. Citizens On Voter Roll

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/12/2026) (MOUNT CLEMENS) – Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini says 239 folks on a Secretary of State (SOS) database used to summon jurors were not U.S. citizens, and 14 of them at some point were registered to vote in Michigan elections. Of those, 10 are still registered to vote.

Forlini, who also happens to be a Republican SOS candidate, held a press conference Monday afternoon on the subject. He explained the county — home to more than 870,000 residents in Southeast Michigan — was experiencing an approximately 40 percent juror turnout of individuals "that are sent notices for jury duty (who) actually are qualified and show up."

"In trying to come up with a solution, we came upon the problem of an unreasonable number of non-citizens that present their green card for an excuse to be dismissed," Forlini said. "The list comes to us from the Secretary of State's office. This has caused our office to have an unreasonable amount of bureaucratic time to process and remove people from jury duty that never should have been on the list to begin with."

The 239 people represent "just 70 percent" of those summoned from Sept. 5, 2025 through Jan. 8, 2026 — or four days ago.

Monday's press conference featured Forlini, Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller, who served as secretary of state from 1995 through 2002, and Rep. Joseph Aragona (R-Clinton Township).

It also featured Monika Rittner, one of Forlini's supervisors. She saw the issue of non-U.S. citizens being summoned for jury duty as a potential solution to determine whether they were on the voter rolls as well.

"A potential solution that no one had ever considered — comparing the jury file against the qualified voter roll (QVF). Our election staff looked up the files in the database just as we had recently done where we had removed 300 deceased voters over the age of 100," Rittner said.

Rittner said 14 of those 239 non-U.S. citizens were at some point registered to vote, and 10 of whom were still qualified to vote — representing about 5 percent overall.

"I did make a call to the Secretary of State's office to verify the procedure to remove the individuals that we did identify from the voter roll, and the response was that 'we're not going to touch this,'" Rittner said.

Forlini said while the SOS does have a role in removing people from the QVF, local clerks are the ones that eventually take people off the QVF. He said his office is "keeping an eye" on Macomb County clerks where the individuals were residing.

"We're just talking about non-citizens that are here working, have a green card and were summoned for jury duty. That's it," Forlini said. "If they're here illegally, my guess is they're not replying to us. They're just staying away."

On a television screen, Forlini showed the application to become a registered voter. He explained how some foreign-speaking residents might face language barriers, possibly not understanding the context of being asked whether they are a U.S. citizen or not.

He described them as incorrectly thinking, "'Yeah. I'm a citizen. I live in Clinton Township … ' They don't really, maybe, understand the full context of this." They check off the boxes claiming they don't have a valid Michigan-issued ID or Social Security number, slipping through the process.

"Are they on the voter rolls because they're citizens or are they on the voter rolls because they self-checked themselves in? And if they do, what's the punishment?" Forlini said.

Aragona confirmed that he will be referring the issue in Macomb County to the House Oversight Committee.

When MIRS contacted the Department of State for a comment on Forlini's press conference, Senior Press Secretary Cheri Hardmon said the jury pool is drawn from the driver's license database, not the voter database.

"Individuals who are legally present in the U.S. can get driver's licenses or state IDs in Michigan," Hardmon said. "The Michigan Department of State regularly investigates reports of voting fraud and will make referrals to law enforcement for further investigation if merited. If the clerk has concerns about data he is viewing in QVF, we invite him to reach out to the Bureau of Elections so we can investigate."

When asked about his thoughts on Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II entering the secretary of state race Monday morning on the Democratic side, Forlini said, "I'm here as the county clerk today, and I'll respond as the county clerk. Those are political questions that are for another time."