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Lawsuit Challenges Florida’s Voter Purge
June 9, 2012
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.”
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
7 Responses to “Lawsuit Challenges Florida’s Voter Purge”
To have standing in court, you must prove you have been harmed.
Being told information suggests you are not a US citizen is simply receiving information. Being told you have been removed is being harmed if you were legitimately a registered voter and if they have actually removed your name from the rolls and refuse to let you vote.
Until such time as that has been done, the lawsuit should be thrown out for lack of standing.
David for keeping carts and horses in correct order
Some people cannot see the forest for the trees. If you are not a citizen it is against the law. How is this discriminatory? Weather it is the ACLU or the Liberals whom do not care what the law is as long as it goes there way. Why is it racial to show a ID to vote?You should be Proud to show you are a American. Not Asian American, Latino American, White American Or black American. It should Be American and support the law. You cannot not vote unless you are a citizen, This is the law.
I am an expat. And I know that I am unable to vote for now.
If others our naturalized US citizens and now want to be able to vote. Then it was/is thier responsibility to contact the justice Dept and inform them of any changes is their status.
People, this is not about republicans or democrats. It is about following the rules which say you need to be a citizen of the USA and state you vote in. We have already seen problems in the past, so now we have to worry about further problems if they don’t check out the voters first. I beleive a few elections (national election) ago Florida lost all it’s votes because there were illegal voters. Do you you want a repeat of that fiasco?
It would appear the democrates and their gestopo, the ACLU, don’t care if the elections are constitutional are not as long as they are elected. The majority of the CITIZENS of this nation are not in favor of liberal, left wing policys so they have to win by “hook or crook”. If the thousands of young men, and women, who died in WW1 and WW11 to “make the world safe for democrocy” could see the outcome of their sacrefice, they would probably regret having fought for such a disgrace as we now see.
I was recently told my Father would turn over in his grave if he knew I voted anything other than democrate. My response was my Father would turn over in his grave if he knew what the democratic party had become. My brothers and sisters feel exactly the same.
Yea those crazy republicans want only US citizens to vote. Isn’t that nuts?
Of course there are those who think it be better to have anyone that wants to vote once or more times in the same election to vote? Sure why not? Citizen or not. Same person over and over with different names. No problem as long as they vote the correct way.
Sorry the vote is the most important RESPONSIBILITY – not right – of a person. You have the right to vote IF you qualify. So many people vote party not person. If the party designation were removed many would not know who to vote for. From either party.
Looks like republicans are discriminatory in who they will allow to vote.