MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. — Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini says what his office uncovered should set off alarms across Michigan: non-U.S. citizens appearing in jury pools, showing up in the voter registry, and in some cases serving on juries or casting ballots.
Forlini, a Republican candidate seeking to replace Democrat Jocelyn Benson as Michigan Secretary of State, says the findings point to systemic failure at the state level—and raises the question of whether the problem is mere incompetence or an intentional refusal to fix known flaws.
“This Should Never Happen”
Michigan law is clear: only U.S. citizens may vote or serve on juries. Yet Forlini says names of non-citizens are routinely pulled into jury summons because the state relies heavily on driver’s license and state ID databases without adequate citizenship filtering.
“These are not obscure edge cases,” Forlini said, arguing that the volume his office encountered shows a breakdown in basic eligibility checks. Critics say that if local clerks can identify the issue, the state has no excuse for failing to fix it.
Jury Pools Built on a Flawed System
Michigan assembles jury pools using state driver’s license and ID records—documents that lawful non-citizens are allowed to obtain. The state has long known this creates a risk of ineligible jurors being summoned, yet no meaningful safeguard has been implemented, according to county officials.
For conservatives and election-integrity advocates, that raises a hard question: Why hasn’t the state closed the loophole?
Voter Registry Concerns Go Further
Even more troubling, Forlini says some of the same non-citizens flagged through jury records also appear in Michigan’s Qualified Voter File, and some cast ballots.
State officials insist such cases are “rare,” but critics argue that any number above zero is unacceptable—and that downplaying the problem only erodes public trust. They say a system that allows non-citizens onto voter rolls is not a secure system, regardless of scale.
Incompetence or Intent?
For years, Republican lawmakers and clerks have urged stronger citizenship verification and tighter coordination between databases. Those calls, Forlini argues, were ignored by the Michigan Department of State under Benson’s leadership.
“To conservatives, this looks less like an oversight and more like willful neglect,” said one election watchdog. “When you know a system is broken and choose not to fix it, that’s not neutral administration.”
The Michigan Department of State maintains that it investigates allegations of improper voting and refers cases to law enforcement when appropriate. But critics say after-the-fact investigations are no substitute for prevention.
A Campaign Built on Accountability
Forlini says his campaign is about restoring basic standards and accountability—verifying citizenship before jury service or voting eligibility, cleaning voter rolls aggressively, and ending what he calls a culture of denial in Lansing.
“This isn’t about suppressing voters,” Forlini said. “It’s about following the law and protecting the integrity of the system for every lawful voter.”
As Michigan heads toward another high-stakes election cycle, Forlini’s revelations are fueling renewed debate over whether election administration under Democratic leadership has been careless—or deliberately permissive.
Either way, conservatives argue, the public deserves answers—and immediate reform.3
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