Florida officials continue to fend off a mounting number of attempts to halt work clearing non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls.
On Tuesday, a coalition of civil rights groups -- groups that adamantly claim to be nonpartisan -- filed a lawsuit charging Florida with race discrimination for how it has gone about trying to find people ineligible from voting on the county registration lists.
Secretary of State spokesman Chris Cate responded that race and party are not being considered.
We have a year-round obligation to ensure the voter rolls are current and accurate, so identifying ineligible voters is not only the right thing to do, its our statutory responsibility, Cate remarked on Tuesday after comment by Florida Immigrant Coalition, Florida New Majority Inc., the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, and Veyeyo.
The lawsuit was filed in Miami federal court on behalf of two South Florida residents, Karla Vanessa Arcia and Melande Antoine, both U.S. citizens whose names were included on the states short list of potential noncitizens.
The lawsuit was announced in a telephone media conference hosted by Fair Elections Legal Network, Project Vote, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the Advancement Project.
Kathy Culliton-Gonzalez, representing the Advancement Project, contends that 87 percent of 2,600 people Florida has questioned for citizenship arepeople of color, Hispanic or black voters --a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit by the groups also copies the U.S. Department ofJustice charge that any review must be halted within 90 days of an election.
Our case is to protect voters in all Florida counties, Culliton-Gonzalez said.
The groups filed the third lawsuit to contest Floridas effort.
The ACLU of Florida has already filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tampa on behalf of two of the 2,600 names sent by the state to county supervisors to check --Murat Limage, a Haitian-American U.S. citizen, and Pamela Gomez, a Dominican-American Hispanic U.S. citizen contending the state violated the Voting Rights Act requirement that Florida gets preclearance for voting-related changes in five counties -- Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks "uniformity" in Florida voting rules.
The U.S. Department of Justice has also taken Florida to court, reiterating its demand for the state to immediately cease the ongoing review of voters because the review violates federal law, being undertaken within 90 days of an election.
Meanwhile, Florida has taken the Obama administration to court to gain access to the Homeland Security Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements(SAVE)database the governors office has requested since September.The state claims it has tried in vain to get DHS's help in finding noncitizens among Floridas registered voters.
On Tuesday, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent another letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano requesting access to the SAVE database. Detzner's letter was in response to a June 12 letter fromU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas that again gave the federal position that the database requires immigration-related identifiers and documentation, which the state hasnt confirmed would be available.
The Associated Press reported that Lee and Collier counties have continued to review their lists even after the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections advised supervisors to put the review on hold pending the outcome of the state and federal dispute.
Cate stated that the states job is to make sure an ineligible voter doesnt neutralize the vote of an eligible voter.
Furthermore, we not aware of anyone who has been erroneously removed from the voter rolls as a result of this initiative, Cate stated in an email response. The only criteria we are concerned about is whether someone is an ineligible voter, and if so, they need to be removed from the voter rolls. Race or party dont play any role in the process whatsoever.
Senate President-designate Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, supported the efforts and expressed criticism about voting in South Florida -- while being interviewed by a Panhandle radio talk-show host Tuesday morning.
With four civil rights groups poised to announce a third lawsuit today in Washington against Floridas registered voter review, Gaetz said Gov. Rick Scott is doing the right thing to make sure everyone who is qualified can vote, while on the Fort Walton radio station WFTW 1260 AM.
When you get down into South Florida, into Broward County and Palm Beach County, Gaetz responded to a caller while talking to morning talk-show host Ken Walsh and a mostly Panhandle audience, there are voter challenges by the hundreds and by the thousands sometimes, not knowing whether people are voting in the right place, whether theyre qualified to vote, whether theyve already voted. These are issues that have come up every time we have a vote.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
