Floridas supervisors of elections appear ready to pick up Gov. Rick Scotts effort to remove non-U.S. citizens from the lists of registered voters, but not until after the Aug. 14 primary.
Supervisors say the delay is needed as the state may take a couple of weeks completing an agreement for access to the Department of Homeland Security database.They also point to the need for the state to train workers on the new system, comply with federal regulations for five counties where early voting begins in less than two weeks, and the intention by the state to update the lists of potential noncitizens.
Nothing is going to happen before the primary, said Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.
So were basically on hold.
The supervisors, in a conference call with legal counsel on Tuesday, agreed not to take any action until the agreement was signed.
However, they do intend to write Secretary of State Ken Detzner asking that when the new lists of potential noncitizens are sent out that each name includes a case file to justify the need for the review, similar to how felons are handled between the state and county offices, Davis said.
The federal government announced Saturday that they would at long last make the Homeland Security Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program (SAVE) database available to the state.
Chris Cate, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, said Monday that once the agreement is signed, the state will first run the 2,625 names already sent to the counties through the database.
The state will then rerun the 180,000 names through the system to get state drivers licenses before putting a more updated list through the federal database, Cate said.
Democrats have argued that the state effort is a push to remove minorities from the list of registered voters prior to the 2012 presidential contest.
The Department of Justice has claimed the states effort to remove voters may violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act -- requiring federal preclearance before undertaking any changes in Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry counties, which have past experience with minority-voting problems -- and that because of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, time has run out for the review before the 2012 elections.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
