With a federal hearing next week against the states attempt to block ineligible voters from being removed from the lists of registered voters, the state has dropped 198 names of individuals illegally registered to vote.
And in some cases, those on the list may have cast ballots, the state declared of the list sent Wednesday to county supervisors of elections for further review.
Each of the persons on the attached list has either personally attested to his or her status as a noncitizen or has been identified as a potential noncitizen using the most accurate information available to the Florida Department of State, including data contained in multiple state and federal databases, the state office announced in a release.
See list of potentially ineligible voters here.
The list was formulated by running the states 12 million registered voters through the Homeland Security Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, the access to which was the subject of lawsuits between the state and federal government this summer.
It will now be up to county supervisors of elections to send certified letters to individuals on the list.
The persons on the list will then have 30 days -- once the certified letter is delivered -- to show proof of citizenship or be dropped from the voter list. Thestate attorneys office will be asked to investigate any noncitizens that cast a ballot in a past election.
The Miami Herald reported Wednesday that at least two people on the list may have cast ballots, including a 73-year-old from Panama City Beach who admitted to having cast ballots for a long, long time.
Others contacted by the paper disputed either that they were registered to vote or had voted as records indicated, or that they were incorrectly listed as noncitizens.
The new list comes with U.S. District Judge William Zloch in Fort Lauderdale scheduled on Monday to hear a request by five groups to block the states effort to remove ineligible voters prior to the November general election.
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.
Florida reached an agreement last month with the federal government to use the SAVE database after county supervisors halted the governor's effort to clear noncitizens.Supervisors had said they needed more reliable information on the potential 2,600 noncitizens they were earlier asked to check on.
A big problem with the initial list was that state data at times was six years old.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
