Florida Governor Rick Scott's administration is abandoning its renewed effort to remove non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls, the state's top elections official announced on Thursday.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner, in a memo to county election supervisors, said the latest attempt at a purge, which two years ago set off a number of legal challenges from voting rights groups, would be postponed until next year. He said the state planned to wait until a new federal database, which helps track potential ineligible voters, is up and running.
Advocacy groups have called the review of non-citizens a thinly veiled attempt to disqualify Hispanic and African-American voters who tend to vote for Democractic candidates. The state's effort in 2012 sparked lawsuits from five voter protection groups, including the League of Women Voters of Florida and one by the U.S. Justice Department, which claimed the purge violated federal law since it was conducted less than 90 days before the election.
In identifying potential non-citizens two years ago, Florida officials sent their information to county election supervisors who then mailed letters to voters requesting proof of citizenship. If no response was received, the voter was dropped from the rolls.
Deirdre Macnab, the League of Women Voters of Florida's president, praised the state's decision to put off the purge, which Scott's administration calls "Project Integrity."
"Programs like 'Project Integrity' have proven, time and time again, to disproportionately impact minority voters and erroneously disenfranchise those that are eligible." she said.
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