With as many as 182,000 noncitizens on Florida's voting rolls -- no one knows for certain -- U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney is calling out the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to provide the state with the tools it needs to identify illegal voters.
Mainstream media reports parroting the Obama administration and Democratic Party operatives persist in branding the state's efforts as a "voter purge."
"That's absolute hogwash," said Rooney spokesman Michael Mahaffey.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department have claimed that a "90-day rule" bars Florida and all other states from "purging" rolls within three months of an election. Florida's primary election is set for Aug. 14.
But the 90-day rule does not shield cases of fraudulent registration.
"The 90-day rule in Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act does not apply to individuals who were ineligible at the time they registered. It applies to those who have changed their address," Mahaffey said.
"It explicitly does not apply to those being removed at the request of the registrant, by reason of criminal conviction or mental incapacity or death -- and, by Congressman Rooneys reading, it certainly does not apply to individuals who were not eligible to begin with."
Florida officials have, since September 2011, been asking Washington for access to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to identify noncitizens.
Holder's DOJ has dragged its heels, refusing to share SAVE data with Florida and other states making similar requests. When Holder's stonewall was exposed in recent reports by Sunshine State News, Holder said the SAVE file didn't contain the necessary information.
But an earlier DOJ memorandum contradicted Holder's claim by saying states could use SAVE to compare voter registration rolls.
Florida officials also attempted to run Florida's voter registrations against the Department of Homeland Security's list of confirmed noncitizens. But to no avail.
"There's been no cooperation whatsoever," Mahaffey said Thursday.
Some counties, urged on by tea party groups, have begun cross-checking jury excusal cards with their local voter rolls. The process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, since many clerks of courts maintain paper records or cannot readily flag noncitizens.
In some counties, there are no records at all -- which leaves the matter to the local county commissions to straighten out.
One state-issued list shows 2,600 people who have raised "red flags," based on DMV records.
Liberal critics of Florida's investigation have long rejected the notion of rampant voter fraud.
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, that produced the 2007 report, "The Truth About Voter Fraud," sorted through thousands of allegations going back to the 1990s.
"Usually, only a tiny portion of the claimed illegality is substantiated," the Brennan Center found, "and most of the remainder is either nothing more than speculation or has been conclusively debunked."
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher and her Broward County counterpart -- both Democrats -- said recently that a state investigation could find just 18 cases of "real" election fraud in all of Florida.
But in Lee and Collier counties alone, records reveal that at least 46 noncitizens have cast ballots in local elections.
At the latest report, county officials in Florida had removed 43 noncitizens from voter lists.
That hardly constitutes a "purge," but Mahaffey says "43 is a big deal" in a tight swing state like Florida."
"Even if it's just one person who cancels out my vote, it's a felony," said Rooney, a former JAG lawyer for the Army.
Acknowledging that citizenship status can change, county officials say no alleged offenders are taken off the rolls before notification letters are sent out.
The Broward Republican Executive Committee said last month that a sampling of voter registration records found nearly one-quarter of the people listed on the county's election rolls are dead.
Broward REC officials cross-referenced the 2011 Social Security Death Index -- which listed 9,960 county residents as passing away during the year -- and checked 2,100 of these names against the list of registered voters on the supervisor of elections' website.
Some 481 names -- 23 percent -- of the deceased individuals remained listed as "active" voters according to the Broward records.
The sampling was conducted without regard to party registration, said Broward County Republican Chairman Richard DeNapoli.
The Broward REC said it was forwarding its evidence of deceased yet "active" voters "so that the Broward SOE has ample time to conduct a thorough investigation and remove the names of deceased voters from the registration rolls prior to the 2012 primary and general elections.
"All voters want a fair and honest election and we know that Broward SOE, Dr. Brenda C. Snipes, will correct this oversight.We hope to work with her on this endeavor," DeNapoli said in a statement.
On Friday, the League of Women Voters of Florida reminded residents that there are only 30 days left to register to vote in the Aug. 14 primary.
"Florida's primary election has never been held this early. Given the changes in the state's elections laws, the League encourages Florida voters to call their local supervisor of elections to check their voter registration status and, if necessary, update it," advised Charley Williams, LWVF Voter Services chair.
"This is particularly important for voters who have recently moved or changed their name."
Williams also had advice for remote voters ahead of the July 16 registration deadline.
"If you plan to vote by mail, call your supervisor to renew your vote-by-mail request and make sure your ballot arrives in time for the election," Williams said.
Meantime, Rooney threw down a challenge to Holder. In a letter to the attorney general, the Tequesta Republican lectured:
"It is time for you to end your blatant politicization of your position as attorney general and the Department of Justice as a whole."
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
