Florida continues to push for the Obama administration to release citizenship information, as elections supervisors from two Democratic-leaning counties have decided not to check for suspected noncitizens on the roll of voters.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner wrote again to the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday in an attempt to obtain what would be more updated citizenship information than the state currently has. Detzner is trying to remove noncitizens from the list of registered voters.
Federal law expressly requires your agency to respond to state inquiries to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within its jurisdiction for any purpose authorized by law, Detzner wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Yet, after nine months of requests, we have not been granted access to that information or any other available DHS database.
The state used Division of Highway Safety records, which lists an individual's citizenship status at the time they get a license. However, the records arent automatically updated the moment a person earns citizenship.
Because of the delay, the supervisors of elections in Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties have decided they would no longer use the states list of potentially ineligible voters.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher told ThinkProgress that she wants more reliable and credible information before sending out letters asking any suspected noncitizen to prove their citizenship in order to remain a voter.
I did not feel we had credible information and told them I wouldnt send [any letters] until they could give me a better list, Bucher told ThinkProgress.
Craig Lattimer, the Hillsborough County supervisors chief of staff, told the alternative weekly Creative Loafing that after six people questioned about their citizenship came to the office with either a birth certificate or passport, it was obvious it wasn't very credible and reliable information, so we suspended any further action."
Detzner believes Homeland Securitys Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database would give supervisors the credibility they claim to desire.
The decision by the two supervisors to stop checking names follows calls by Democrats and a number of voting rights groups -- Project Vote, Fair Elections Legal Network, Advancement Project, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, LULAC Florida, and the Hillsborough Hispanic Coalition Inc. -- to halt the review, claiming the states effort to identify and remove people who may not be citizens violates federal law.
Secretary of State spokesman Chris Cate said from all the media reports about individuals being checked that are found to be citizens, there have been no reports of citizens being removed.
We know that this process is making a difference and improving our voter registration roles, Cate said. We recognize some people have been unconvinced by having to contact their supervisor and say that they are a citizen. But you cant deny the fact that the process is identifying noncitizens on the voter role and noncitizens are being removed.
While the state attorney's office has reported that three people are being investigated for potential prosecution under the Third Party Voter Registration Act, no numbers were available Thursday for the number of noncitizens that have been removed from the list of registered voters.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
