Florida Suspends Gov. Scott’s Voter Purge Efforts

Source: Palm Beach Post / Raw Story

Florida suspends Gov. Scott’s voter purge efforts

By Andrew Jones
Saturday, June 2, 2012 20:02 EDT

Florida’s election supervisors announced their decision Friday evening to stop the controversial effort of Governor Rick Scott’s (R) administration removing names off the state’s voter rolls, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Spurred by the Department of Justice delivered a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner that the name purging was illegal, the state’s Supervisors of Elections president Vicki Davis acknowledged the numerous mistakes located in purging eligible voters off the rolls. “There are just too many variables with this entire process at this time for supervisors to continue,” Davis said.

One area serving as the prime example of the Scott administration’s mistakes is Miami Dade County, a predominantly Democratic area. 1638 people in the county were flagged as “non-citizens” by the state. However, at least 359 people already provided information proving their citizenship. An additional 26 people were identified as citizens by the county itself.

Supervisors acknowledged that they failed to send letters to those individuals getting removed from the voting rolls that would have given them 30 days to provide proof of citizenship to vote.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/02/florida-suspends-gov-scotts-voter-purge-tactics

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/florida-voter-purge-gets-pushback-from-elections-supervisors-2387004.html

Florida voter purge gets pushback from elections supervisors, U.S. Justice

By DARA KAM
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 7:49 p.m. Saturday, June 2, 2012
Posted: 7:21 p.m. Friday, June 1, 2012

TALLAHASSEE — Florida elections supervisors said Friday they will discontinue a state-directed effort to remove names from county voter rolls because they believe the state data is flawed and because the U.S. Department of Justice has said the process violates federal voting laws.

Late Thursday, the Department of Justice sent Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner a letter telling him that an effort launched by Republican Gov. Rick Scott's administration last year to remove the names of people believed to be non-citizens from voter rolls appears to violate at least two federal voting laws. The federal agency gave Detzner until Wednesday to respond.

The Justice Department letter and mistakes that the 67 county elections supervisors have found in the state list make the scrub undoable, said Martin County Elections Supervisor Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

"There are just too many variables with this entire process at this time for supervisors to continue," Davis said.