Federal government investigating potential noncitizen voters in Macomb County

“Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here. The Department of Homeland Security is conducting “an active investigation” of potential noncitizen voters in a swingy suburban Detroit county, according to a subpoena obtained by Votebeat . Homeland Security Investigations sent the subpoena to Macomb County in January, days after County Clerk Anthony Forlini said his team had discovered 15 potential noncitizens registered to vote. The subpoena requested “all available information” on noncitizen voters from Macomb County in Michigan’s Qualified Voter File, the state’s official voter roll. The request includes applications to vote, “types of voting conducted,” and “any signed documents.” Forlini told Votebeat on Wednesday that he hadn’t heard the results of any investigations related to what his office shared. When requests come in from other government entities, he said, they are routed through the county’s attorneys. “We always cooperate,” Forlini said, calling the request “pretty standard.” He said that anytime the federal government asks the county for something, “we provide it.” The request appears to be another recent example of the federal government trying to sniff out noncitizen voters. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, but it has become something of a rallying cry for Republicans in Michigan and across the country. In April, the Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed at least three counties in Texas for detailed records about individual voters after the state turned over its voter roll to the U.S. Department of Justice. A number of states have declined to share that data, including Michigan, and have been sued by the federal government as a result. Forlini — who is also Republicans’ candidate for secretary of state this fall — has repeatedly called attention to noncitizen voting and said it is the result of “a problem in the system.” He dove headlong into the issue in January, when his staff compared a list of people who had claimed to be noncitizens to get out of jury duty to a list of registered voters. They found three people who both had claimed a lack of citizenship and who had a history of voting. Later that month, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced that of those three people, one was a citizen, one was a noncitizen who had last voted in 2018 before their registration was canceled in 2022, and one was still under review. Comparing two separate databases to try to find noncitizen voters has a spotty track record, in part because it’s easy to mistake two different people as one because they have similar names or addresses. Jury questionnaires are also not 100% reliable — people sometimes lie about their citizenship to get out of jury duty. In March, the Michigan Department of State sent a letter to county clerks and election directors across the state warning them against using jury pools to find noncitizen voters, lest eligible voters find their registrations canceled or are “accused of improper conduct or subject to undue criminal investigation.” But Forlini has stood by his effort. Last month, he said he had found seven additional noncitizens registered to vote . This time, he was more confident than ever that the people in question were not citizens because, as he told Votebeat, he was working with federal officials who had access to a database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements , or SAVE. The Michigan Department of State is still investigating these potential noncitizens, and it remains unclear if any of them ever cast ballots. Forlini said Wednesday that he believes he has “a duty” to use all the tools at his disposal to root out noncitizen voters, and he believes the secretary of state’s office has that duty as well. Noncitizen voting is “a flaw that just can’t happen,” Forlini said, adding that the issue went beyond partisan politics and individual officeholders. “We have to fix it.” Angela Benander, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State, said Thursday she was not aware of any other counties in Michigan receiving similar subpoenas. The only other attempt to go through a local government to get Michigan voting records she knew of, she said, was the Department of Justice’s recent request for 2024 ballots from Wayne County. Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett denied that request last month, as municipal governments — townships and cities — have custody of ballots in Michigan. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it does not comment on ongoing investigations, but added that Homeland Security Investigations “remains committed to investigating and combating election fraud wherever it is found.” Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org .

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