Six House Democrats from Florida – U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, Alcee L. Hastings, Corrine Brown, Fredericka Wilson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Kathy Castor – addressed a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott on May 29 asking “for the immediate suspension of the Florida Division of Elections’ directive that county supervisors of elections purge up to 180,000 names from Florida’s voter rolls in advance of the November 2012 elections.”

It continued, in part:

“While we all agree that the right to vote should be reserved only to those who are eligible, any process that could strip Floridians of their voting rights should be conducted with the utmost caution and transparency, and certainly not within six months of a major federal election and within 90 days of the primary. Providing a list of names with questionable validity – created with absolutely no oversight – to county supervisors and asking that they purge their rolls will create chaotic results and further undermine Floridians’ confidence in the integrity of our elections. A rushed process will undermine both Florida and federal law requiring voter rolls to be maintained in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner. …

“We agree that removing deceased, ineligible and fraudulently registered individuals from the voter rolls is important as part of responsible stewardship of our elections system. We support any open process to remove these names from voter rolls, but we strongly object to the process currently underway. It is already evident that many eligible voters have been included among the names of individuals to be removed, and it appears the state is on track to repeat the mistakes of 2000 and 2004 rather than learning from them.

“It is important to remember, Governor Scott, that Florida has never encountered problems with mass voter fraud. Unfortunately, however, our state does have a troubled history of wrongfully purging from our rolls the names of legitimate voters mistakenly deemed ineligible to vote. In both 2000 and 2004, the state pursued misguided efforts to purge the voter rolls that were shown to wrongfully include legal voters in these lists. Only when the lists and the process were made transparent could all Florida voters trust that no one would be wrongfully denied their right to vote.

“It is the responsibility of the supervisors of elections to maintain accurate voter registration records, and doing so is an important part of protecting the integrity of our elections. In the same vein, individual cases of suspected voter fraud should be vigorously pursued whenever they are uncovered. But we must remember that the voting rights afforded to all Americans by our Constitution should at all times be protected. Unfortunately, state officials have spent more time restricting the ability of Floridians to vote rather than registering disenfranchised voters, protecting access to the polls, and encouraging participation in the democratic process.

Our concerns are shared by millions of Floridians. Rather than allow this unscrupulous purge to cast a shadow of doubt over the upcoming elections, we hope you take seriously our concerns and immediately suspend the purge of voter registration lists spearheaded by the Florida Division of Elections in order to ensure that not one Floridian finds his or her legitimate voting rights callously stripped away.

As a backdrop to the controversy over the state Division of Elections’ list of registered voters deemed to be possible noncitizens, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner asked the Department of Homeland Security for access to its database on individuals’ legal status. The U.S. Department of Justice also suggested that Florida’s actions may be in violation of the Voting Rights Act. That, in turn, triggered a response from Detzner. Finally, the lawyer for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, Ron Labasky, recommended that county supervisors of elections “cease any further action until the issues raised by the Department of Justice are resolved between the parties or by a court.”

FLORIDA LETTER TO HOMELAND SECURITY

In a May 31 letter to Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sought access to Homeland Security’s SAVE database – the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program. Noting that his department’s “ability to validate a person’s legal status as up-to-date was limited,” Detzner said SAVE “has the information we need, and by federal law, we are entitled to request and receive legal status information from the federal government.”

“Federal law,” he wrote, “expressly requires your agency to respond to state inquiries seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within its jurisdiction for any purpose authorized by law. … Yet after nine months of requests, we have not been granted access to that information or any other available DHS database.”

In his letter to Secretary Napolitano, Detzner added: “I have a duty to ensure Florida’s voter registration rolls are current and accurate. I hope you will understand the importance of making sure the vote of an eligible voter is not diminished by the vote of an ineligible voter and provide my department the access it needs to the SAVE database.”

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE LETTER TO FLORIDA

Also on May 31, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division addressed a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner suggesting that Florida’s efforts to identify “potentially ineligible voters based on citizenship” could be counter to the Voting Rights Act.

The letter from T. Christian Herren Jr., chief of DOJ’s Voting Section, said, “Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the attorney general for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.” Accordingly, Herren said changes affecting voting must be either brought before that court or the attorney general “for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group under Section 5.”

Herren also said the State of Florida is subject to the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires a state to complete any program “to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters” within 90 days of a primary or general election for federal office. The Department of Justice calculated that date as May 16, 2012.

FLORIDA’S RESPONSE TO DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

In response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s letter, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner issued this statement on June 1:

“As Florida’s chief election officer, I am committed to ensuring the accuracy of Florida’s voter rolls and the integrity of our elections. It is my duty to protect the right of all eligible voters who are able to participate in the process. This is the security that voters and candidates expect from us in every election. The department will continue to act in a responsible and cautious manner when presented with credible information about potentially ineligible voters. No one that has the right to vote has been denied the opportunity to cast a vote, and as the secretary, it is my duty to ensure that remains the case.

“As to the specific concerns presented by the Department of Justice, we will be responding next week.”