The Independent View: Justice Tells FL to Stop the Voter Purge Project

Florida has begun a purge of “non-citizens” from the voting rolls and reports are saying that hundreds of eligible voters have already been struck from the rolls.

Florida has already put out an initial list of more than 2,600 people identified as non-U.S. citizens and has indicated it could aim to purge up to 180,000 supposed non-citizens from the rolls, but from all the inaccuracies, that could mean a staggering number of eligible voters being wrongfully purged and denied their right to vote.

This process is going forward with no oversight, and is all too reminiscent of the scrub orchestrated in 2000 by Secretary of State Katherine Harris under then Gov. Jeb Bush. Under Gov. Rick Scott and Sec. of State Ken Detzner, Florida has already erected barriers to voter registration that hurt minority and low-income voters.

The Department of Justice has sent a letter to the Florida Secretary of State telling him to stop the voter purge. In addition to being wrong, it appears that it is also probably illegal. It demands a response by 6/6/2012.

Not only did Florida fail to clear the purge under the Voting Rights Act, which it was required to do, but it seems to be in clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act.

According to the NVRA, voter roll maintenance should have been concluded 90 days before an election. Florida’s primary is on August 14, so that means any purge or other voter roll adjustments should have ceased on May 16.

A spokesman for Florida Secretary of State, Ken Detzner, said the state must make certain that only eligible voters cast ballots.

"We have a year-round obligation to ensure the integrity of Florida's elections. We will be responding to (the Justice Department's) concerns next week," Chris Cate said in an email message.

UPDATE
Saying the state would not stop trying to scrub the rolls of ineligible voters, Florida’s election chief told the Department of Justice on Wednesday that Florida was not violating any laws.

The official, Ken Detzner, Florida’s secretary of state, accused the federal government of sullying the integrity of the election process by trying to thwart Florida’s efforts to remove voters who are not American citizens.

Mr. Detzner went on to say that it was the Department of Homeland Security that appeared to be violating the law by depriving Florida of access to a federal immigration database. A Homeland Security privacy-impact statement dated August 2011 states that the database can be used for “any legal purpose such as background investigations and voter registrations.”

Florida requested access to the database last year to help verify its voter list but has not received it. The agency has said the request poses legal and technical challenges. Considering the delay, Mr. Detzner said the federal government could not now accuse the state of trying to remove voters too close to an election.

“This hardly seems like an approach earnestly designed to protect the integrity of elections and to ensure that eligible voters have their votes counted,” Mr. Detzner wrote in a letter on Wednesday to T. Christian Herren Jr., the chief of the Justice Department’s voting section.