As Florida eagerly awaits the federal government response on why Homeland Security wouldnt open a database to help search for non-citizen voters, the states top election official said the process is just beginning.
Were not done with the effort, said Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Friday before theAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Florida announced it would file a lawsuit to stop the state's program.
We think there are more possible individuals who are registered that have voted, but until we have access to the (Homeland Security) SAVE database, it will be challenging for us to do that.
The ACLU filed its 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.
ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon claimed Gov. Rick Scott and Detzner were putting "political spin" to hide the intent of removing voters.
"They mislead Floridians by calling their illegal list purge protecting citizen's voting rights'," Simon stated in a release. "This is precisely why Congress has re-enacted, and why we continue to need, the Voting Rights Act -- to prevent state officials from interfering with the constitutional rights of minorities. We now look to the courts to stop the Scott administration from assaulting democracy by denying American citizens the right to vote.
Earlier in the day Gov. Rick Scott said he is standing up for the citizens of Florida as he will continue to pursue the U.S. Homeland Security SAVE database to better find noncitizens listed among Floridas registered voters.
You dont want your vote diluted by people who dont have a right to vote, Scott said Friday during an interview with 92.5 FM FOX in Fort Myers.
Im going to stand up for the rights of citizens of Florida, he added.
Im going to continue to demand Homeland Security give us the database. When we find criminal evidence that somebody has a right to vote, Im going to give it to the supervisors of elections. Its their job. Theyre independent; its their job to make sure the voting rolls are accurate.
The state has identified more than 182,000 people as potentially being non-citizens among the list of registered voters using the states Division of Highway Safety records.
From that list 2,600 names have been sent to county supervisors to contact those individuals.
At least one individual in the Tampa area is being investigated for having voted in 2006 while not a U.S. citizen.
Detzner said the state is working slowly through the entire list.
State officiails have acknowledged that while the Highway Safety records list an individual's citizenship status at the time they get a license, the records arent automatically updated the moment a person earns citizenship.
The state first requested the Homeland Security SAVE database, which is expected to provide more updated citizenship information, in September.
Meanwhile, the state has imposed a Monday deadline for U.S. Department of Justice to respond to questions that on the legality of Homeland Security having for months kept the state from accessing to the SAVE database.
The only statement out of the DOJ was a simple email on Thursday declaring that the department is currently reviewing the letter it received from the Florida secretary of state regarding reported voter list maintenance.
The DOJ has claimed the effort 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.
Because of the exchange, the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections on June 1 advised supervisors to put the review on hold.
You only want people that are entitled to vote, Scott said Friday. Races are often won by a few votes -- often.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
