The Republican Party of Florida has re-upped its support of the states effort to access a federal database to check the citizenship of registered voters, just as the liberal Moveon.org has targeted Gov. Rick Scott.
The actions from both groups come as the deadline approaches for the state to respond to a U.S. Department of Justice order to halt the voter roll review, a move that has already caused the states supervisors of elections to halt their review of the states list.
Liberal http://MoveOn.org is attacking FL's effort to stop Voter Fraud. Protect the Integrity of our Vote, the RPOF tweeted midday Tuesday.
The tweet included a link to the RPOFs previous call for supporters to flood the White House to open the U.S. Department of Homeland Security database to the state Division of Elections for the review.
Earlier Tuesday, Garlin Gilchrist, a national campaign director for Moveon.org and the social media manager for the Obama campaign in 2008, blasted an email to supporters of the need to stop Scotts all-out assault on Floridas Latino voters.
We have to stop Governor Scott today -- he is embarrassing Florida and corrupting the electoral process, Gilchrist wrote. His reckless acts have local and national implications. So lets ring his offices phones off the hook until he stops his racially-targeted attack on voting rights.
He also included the governors office number in the email.
Other emails from Moveon.org sought signatures to halt the review, as it disproportionately affects Democrats, independents and Latinos, until after the 2012 elections.
Florida Governor Rick Scott plans to purge tens of thousands of voters from Floridas voting rolls, proclaimed Keenan Walsh, identified in an email as a Moveon member.
The state is expected to respond Wednesday to the Department of Justice.
The federal agency claims the states 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.
Scott on Monday defended the states efforts to remove noncitizens from the list of Floridas registered voters, saying we just want fair elections.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner had previously released a statement declaring his commitment to the accuracy and integrity of the elections, but has also continued to request that the state be allowed to open the federal database.
The state used Division of Highway Safety records, which list an individual's citizenship status at the time they get a license.However, the records arent automatically updated the moment a person earns citizenship.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
