Why do we have non-citizens voting in Gwinnett? If that headline caught your attention, stay with us. We’ll get to the numbers shortly, but first, some background.
October 23, 2024 – “Georgia’s top elections official said Wednesday that a check of voter rolls found that 20 of the 8.2 million people registered to vote in the state are not U.S. citizens.”
This was the result of the “Only American Citizen Voting” Audit performed by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which began in July of 2024. Twenty non-citizens among 8.2 million registered voters is an extraordinarily small number. But there is another source of information that may identify additional non-citizens who appear on Georgia’s voter rolls: the jury-duty process.
Jury Duty Provides Another Way to Check Citizenship
Potential jurors are selected from Georgia driver’s license and state ID card holders, as well as registered voters. One legitimate reason to be excused from jury service is if the potential juror is not a U.S. citizen. To claim that exemption, an individual must sign a notarized affidavit stating that he or she is not a citizen:
State law then requires these individuals to be reported to the Secretary of State.:
OCGA 21-2-231 says, in part:
(a.1) The clerk of the superior court of each county shall, on or before the tenth day of each month, prepare and transmit to the Secretary of State, in a format prescribed by the Secretary of State, a complete list of all persons, including addresses, ages, and other identifying information as prescribed by the Secretary of State, who identify themselves as not being citizens of the United States during their qualification to serve as a juror during the preceding calendar month in that county.
The statute further provides:
(c)(1) Upon receipt of the lists described in subsections (a.1) and (b) of this Code section, the Secretary of State shall transmit the names of such persons whose names appear on the list of electors to the appropriate county board of registrars who shall remove all such names from the list of electors and shall mail a notice of such action and the reason therefor to the last known address of such persons by first-class mail.
What Gwinnett’s Records Show
Records obtained from the Gwinnett County Clerk of Court show that during 2025 and the first several months of 2026, the Secretary of State referred 21 self-identified non-citizens who appeared on Gwinnett’s voter rolls back to the county for removal.
These individuals were not identified through a targeted voter-roll investigation. They were identified because they were summoned for jury duty and signed sworn affidavits stating that they were not U.S. citizens.
It does not tell us how many non-citizens were never summoned for jury duty, nor how many may have failed to identify themselves during jury qualification.
The contrast is noteworthy. The statewide audit found 20 non-citizens among 8.2 million registered voters, while this separate process identified 21 self-identified non-citizens in Gwinnett County alone, where there are approximately 650,000 registered voters.
Did these non-citizens vote?
Yes. According to voter history records, these 21 individuals cast a combined 43 ballots over the previous twelve years.
Are any of these non-citizens still on the voter rolls?
Despite the removal procedures described in O.C.G.A. 21-2-231, five of these individuals remained listed as voters as late as May 2026.
What Should Happen Next?
This review examined only a fraction of the voter rolls and identified 21 self-identified non-citizens who appear to have cast more than 40 ballots in Georgia elections. Georgia already has a process for identifying and removing such registrations. The next step is determining whether that process is being followed consistently statewide.
A possible action plan:
- Obtain from the Secretary of State all county reports submitted pursuant to O.C.G.A. 21-2-231 for the past several years.
- Identify counties that have not submitted monthly reports and, where necessary, obtain the underlying jury-duty records and ensure future compliance with the reporting requirements.
- Review the voter registration status of all individuals identified through this process.
- Determine how these individuals were added to the voter rolls and whether there are common factors that can be addressed.
At the very least, that would be a step in the right direction.