LANSING, Mich. — Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said her office continues to investigate claims of noncitizens voting or registering to vote in Michigan, following allegations by Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini that he'd found more than a dozen noncitizens on the voting rolls.

But Benson said the Bureau of Elections' review so far of Forlini's allegations found his investigation was incomplete and subjected at least one valid U.S. citizen who was eligible to vote to a criminal probe.

"I have long said we need to conduct these reviews thoroughly and carefully, and this is why, because these accusations have real consequences for real people," Benson said Thursday in a call with reporters.

In an interview with The Detroit News, Forlini said he was limited in what he could say because the issue is now under investigation.

But the Macomb County clerk argued that his office contacted Benson's office regarding the voters and was told to refer the matter to local clerks for verification and removal of the individuals. His office, he said, forwarded the names to local clerks and the county's corporate counsel. Forlini also held a press conference on the issue that made national headlines.

"I think this is pretty serious stuff," said Forlini, a Republican running for secretary of state. "Every vote matters, every vote counts. If indeed this is happening, we need to look into it.”

Benson, a Democrat who is running for governor, questioned Forlini's motivations, arguing they were not about election security, and noted that the clerk had shared his findings with law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice, which is suing the state for access to its unredacted voting rolls.

The Department of Justice, Benson said, has not provided adequate answers on why it wants Michigan's voting data, how it will use the information or how the DOJ will protect that data.

"Responsible election officials don't hold press conferences before they've actually verified anything," Benson said of Forlini's allegations. "And we don't meet with federal officials that are pushing conspiracies around voting before we've actually checked the facts."

Benson, who is serving her last term as secretary of state, is running for the Democratic nomination for governor; and Forlini is running to be the Republican nominee for secretary of state.

The issue of noncitizens voting in Michigan elections has been a flashpoint in recent election security debates. Officials say evidence proves it rarely happens in Michigan or in any other state in the nation. But a Chinese national attending the University of Michigan cast a ballot in the 2024 election after signing an affidavit professing to be a U.S. citizen. The 19-year-old student was charged in Washtenaw County court, but fled the U.S. before he stood trial.

Since then, Republican lawmakers and groups have proposed a variety of initiatives to require proof of citizenship in order to vote. Additionally, Benson has done her own review of the most recent federal election. In April, Benson said the Bureau of Elections identified 15 individuals who allegedly were not U.S. citizens but still cast ballots in the November 2024 presidential election in Michigan.

Benson's press conference Thursday comes a few weeks after Forlini held his own media event to announce that he'd found 14 noncitizens registered to vote. A 15th was later added before the list was sent over to Benson, Forlini said Thursday.

In his Jan. 12 press conference, Forlini said his office, over the past four months, pulled the names of roughly 10,000 from driver's license applications for possible jury duty service. Of those 10,000, 239 reported to the clerk's office that they were noncitizens and ineligible to serve on a jury. Of those 239, 14 had been registered to vote at some point and three of those 14 appeared to have actually voted, Forlini said.

Forlini said he forwarded the list to the county's top lawyer, which then referred it to a policing agency. If a crime is believed to have occurred, the policing agency will refer it for prosecution, he said.

During his press conference, Forlini called on the state to tighten its driver's license application process, which could be one area of entry for noncitizens to be mistakenly added to the jury pool and the registered voter list.

"We’ve got to find a better way so they don’t get into the system," Forlini said.

Benson's office argued there is no pathway for noncitizens who provide proof of legal presence while seeking a driver's license to be automatically registered to vote and that it is up to clerks to determine the eligibility of jurors, including their citizenship.

Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater, in a Thursday letter to Forlini, requested copies of the documentation Forlini referenced to verify their citizenship and eligibility to vote.

"Once our review of the registration and any immigration records is completed, we will send any registered voter who appears to be ineligible a notification, and their registration will be cancelled unless they respond with information confirming their eligibility," Brater wrote.

Benson noted Thursday that, since she took office in 2019, roughly 1.1 million ineligible or out-of-date voter registrations have been removed from the voting rolls.

She did not have a breakdown of how many of those removed from the voting rolls were noncitizens. But she noted that it is not uncommon for a voter to be listed as a noncitizen by mistake due to a clerical error or a recent change in citizenship status.

Benson said one of the three individuals identified by Forlini as having voted was found during a Bureau of Elections review to be a U.S. citizen eligible to vote. A second person who voted in 2024 remains under investigation, and the third last voted in 2018, under former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican. That individual had their registration revoked in 2022, Benson said.

Of the 15 individuals Forlini accused of being registered to vote, three were found to be American citizens, four had their voter registration previously canceled and the department is seeking additional documentation for another four to verify citizenship, Benson's office said. The last four are apparent noncitizens and will be sent a letter asking them to confirm their eligibility to vote. If they do not respond, their registration will be canceled, Benson's office said.

Benson directed further inquiries to Forlini when asked why an American citizen would claim to be a noncitizen during jury selection, or whether that individual was mismatched to an eligible American voter during Forlini's review.

"What we did was ask for the evidence of any wrongdoing and, from what he gave to us, these were our findings," Benson said.

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, who joined Benson on the call with reporters, said it's possible the individual made an error while filling out a jury questionnaire or that he or she lied to avoid jury duty.

Becker also noted it's possible the individual picked for the jury pool was a noncitizen and then was errantly matched to a U.S. citizen eligible to vote during Forlini's review.

Forlini's efforts to match jury questionnaires to voter files are not new, Becker said. Individuals have attempted to make similar comparisons over the past two decades, but the effort is susceptible to error on several fronts, he said.

"First, it's really hard to take a name from a jury questionnaire and match it to a voter file and be absolutely certain you're talking about the same individual, because the data on a jury questionnaire doesn't often match what might be in the voter file," Becker said. "For instance, a driver's license number or social security number might not be on that. So you're going to get a lot of false positives."

Forlini said Benson's comments appeared to leave many questions unanswered, including how 239 noncitizens were allowed into the jury pool, let alone the more than a dozen who were registered to vote. He maintained that his probe into those issues is not political.

"This isn’t about drama," Forlini said. "This is about fixing a system that’s allowing this to happen.”

Forlini is seeking the GOP nomination for secretary of state at the Michigan Republican Party's March 28 nominating convention against businesswoman and activist Monica Yatooma of Commerce Township and Clarkston school board member Amanda Love.

Benson is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in the August primary. Her lone potential opponent is Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.

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—Staff Writer Max Reinhart contributed.

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