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Johnson to non-citizens: don't vote

LANSING, MI (AP)--   Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says she's letting about 600 non-U.S. citizens know they need to withdraw from the voter rolls. 

Johnson said in a statement Thursday that the non-citizens registered to vote, in some cases not realizing what they were doing.

Department of State offices used to routinely ask all people getting driver's licenses if they wanted to register to vote.

Johnson says the list of noncitizen voters comes from Michigan's driver file and federal records.  Officials say they'll send letters this week asking the individuals to contact state election officials to be removed from the rolls.

The department last year said it verified about 1,000 noncitizen registered voters and extrapolated as many as four times more.

Spokeswoman Gisgie Gendreau says the 600 represents those who could be verified as voters but the federal government hasn't helped Michigan work through the qualified voter file.

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.