Comer Investigates Possible Noncitizens on MI Voter Rolls
Republicans are investigating reports that Michigan may have non-citizens on its voter rolls and on juries, with the news coming amid efforts to safeguard citizens’ right to vote.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. John James (R-MI) reportedly asked U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi whether a specific Detroit-area county was potentially violating federal law, Fox News reported Tuesday.
In their letter to Bondi, Comer and James said: “Non-citizens have appeared in the state’s jury pool and, in some cases, have been registered to vote. The committee requests a briefing to understand the role of the U.S. Department of Justice in investigating such cases, and the possibility of similar issues occurring nationally.”
The letter says the state’s jury is made up of people with driver’s licenses and state ID cards that automatically register them to vote unless they choose not to.
“In Macomb County, Michigan, Clerk Anthony Forlini discovered significant violations during a cross-check of the Michigan Secretary of State’s qualified voter file and the county’s jury pool. Over a four-month period, 239 non-citizens were included in the jury pool. Of those individuals, 14 were identified as having been registered to vote at some point,” the letter continued.
In 2020, a report from the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) showed that nearly 350,000 deceased voters were still eligible to vote and a number of double votes in the previous two elections, Breitbart News reported at the time.
The following year, PILF filed a lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, alleging that she failed to erase more than 25,000 possibly deceased people from voter rolls after being repeatedly warned about the problem.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) sued Benson in December over allegations that the state’s election law “inherently violates the state constitution by allowing nonresidents to vote in state elections,” according to Breitbart News.
According to the Fox article, Comer and James argued that the Civil Rights Act gives Bondi the authority to act on the issue and asked him to check to see if similar issues were arising in other states.
Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) recently told Breitbart News that he is co-sponsoring Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-TX) SAVE America Act.
“Ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in U.S. elections, as well as voter ID requirements, is not controversial – it is common sense,” Emmer said.
