Two naturalized citizens and a Hispanic advocacy group filed suit in federal court Friday to block elections officials from purging the state voting rolls of individuals suspected of being non-citizens.
Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, voters Murat Limage and Pamela Gomez and the Mi Familia Vota Education Fund said the purge violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
The state didn’t get the green light for the project from the U.S. Justice Department, which must preclear changes to voting laws and rules in five counties under the VRA because of a history of racial or language-based discrimination.
State officials have argued that approval is unnecessary; the Justice Department has already begun looking into the initiative.
“This is precisely why Congress has re-enacted, and why we continue to need, the Voting Rights Act — to prevent state officials from interfering with the constitutional rights of minorities,” ACLU Executive Director Howard Simon said in a statement announcing the suit. “We now look to the courts to stop the Scott administration from assaulting democracy by denying American citizens the right to vote.”
Gov. Rick Scott and Secretary of State Ken Detzner have defended the purge, which relies on a state database of driver’s license information to find likely non-citizens. Those names are then sent to the supervisors of elections, some of whom have contended the scrub is illegal, or at least faulty, and some of them have refused to carry it out.
Detzner’s office said it would review the lawsuit.
Supervisors of both parties have said some of those named on the list are actually U.S. citizens. State officials have countered that supervisors haven’t remove those people, so the check is working as intended.
“We are not aware of any eligible voters who have been removed from the voter rolls as a result of our efforts to ensure the integrity of Florida elections,” state Division of Elections spokesman Chris Cate said in an email.
But in continuing to push for the purge, the plaintiffs say, the state is making it more likely someone will be wrongly removed.
“Defendant is proceeding to implement the new voter purge procedures notwithstanding: 1) widely-reported information showing that the targeting procedure is highly inaccurate; 2) strong opposition from numerous Florida county Supervisors of Elections; and 3) formal notice by the United States Department of Justice that Defendant’s implementation of the procedures appear to violate Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,” the lawsuit says.
While Gomez hasn’t actually received a letter notifying her that she could be removed from the rolls, she says she is concerned that the purge could target her because she got a driver’s license before becoming a citizen. Limage did receive a letter.
“When I received the letter saying that they had information that I may not be a citizen, I was concerned that someone was taking away my citizenship,” he said in the ACLU news release. “I’m an American which means I can vote and that’s all I want to do.”
–Brandon Larrabee, News Service of Florida
Linda H. says
Nobody may be removed from the voter rolls without giving them the opportunity to respond, to prove their citizenship. They have 30 days to respond and even then, can still vote (only in person on election day).
The law protects the voter.
"My Daily Rant" says
Clean up the system.When you vote show I.D.Alls the Democrats are trying to do is get all Hispanics voting
they could care less if their citizens or not.
Iva Hadit says
Give me a break! If Democrats were purging the polls the Republicans howls would be deafening. Did they really think this would fly? People are pissed! Good. I hope the lawsuit prevails.
BW says
“My Daily Rant”,
This purging initiative was started by our Governor who is a Republican and sent out the directive. This was not started by the Democrats. In fact, many Republican Supervisors across the state refused to participate because they found the lists inaccurate such as one case where a 90 year old man who served in WWII and voted all his life was sent the 30-day notice letter. Should he be put through that?
I personally applaud the Supervisors who caught such issues and said “No” to such a direction. Likewise, the Governor does not have the authority, and nor should that Office, to try and sway elections through shady directives. Linda H. is absolutely correct that the law protects the voter. It’s called the Voter’s Rights Act and this action by the Governor attempted to deny many legal voters their right to vote.
And, we already show ID’s at the polls here, and I personally don’t believe in these made up blatant scare tactics such as massive amounts of illegals voting and welfare queens. The only one’s buying those ridiculous stories are the minority that are trying to spread them.
Howard Duley says
Has this country gone insane. The older I get the more I wish either Hitler would come back from the dead or Shareha Law would take over. Our government has gone completely off the rails. Making sure that people who vote are actual citizens seems like a no brainer to me.