Florida legal voters have been purged from rolls in noncitizen hunt
By Mark Caputo
From The Miami Herald
Gov. Rick Scott often says that no actual citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in his program to make sure noncitizens don’t have the chance to cast ballots.
“Not one person has been taken off the voter rolls that was a resident, a U.S. citizen who has the right to vote,” Scott said Tuesday in Miami.
But that might not be the case.
In two counties – Collier and Lee – at least nine people have been removed from the voter rolls under Scott’s program, and elections officials have no solid proof that those people are noncitizens. More could be purged soon.
It’s that lack of certainty that concerns Democrats, liberals and voting-rights groups, who have sued the state to stop the program. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice also filed suit.
Critics say they worry that the program will spook legitimate voters who are immigrants.
“This affects the immigrant community and the rumor mill is churning,” said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, a Miami lawyer representing the Advancement Project and a coalition of other liberal-leaning groups opposed to the program.
“People are in fear,” she said. “This is complicated and threatening.”
But Scott said he’s trying to make sure ineligible voters aren’t fraudulently casting ballots and “diluting” lawful vote.
More than 100 noncitizens have been spotted on the rolls so far, officials say, and nearly half might have voted.
The numbers are small and isolated, in large part because Lee and Collier appear to be the only two major Florida counties that are continuing with the program of purging potential noncitizens if they fail to respond to the counties’ requests to proof citizenship.
The other major Florida counties stopped the process amid concerns with the accuracy of a list of 2,700 potential noncitizens furnished by the state. The list disproportionately contained the names of actual citizens legally entitled to vote and incidentally happened to target more minorities than non-Hispanic whites and Republicans.
Had the large counties continued with the program, the controversy and questions would only have grown, judging by what’s happening in the two Southwest Florida counties. The state’s program could have been massive. The state initially identified more than 180,000 potential noncitizens on the rolls.
[…]
Lawful voters stripped from the rolls could nevertheless cast a provisional ballot on Election Day or furnish proof of citizenship to cast a regular ballot. Provisional ballots can be subject to challenge, and are tallied or tossed out at a public meeting of each county’s three-member canvassing board that meets more than 48 hours after the election.
[…]
Miami-Dade accounts for about 1,600 potential noncitizens, the lion’s share of the state’s list, because the county has the largest foreign-born population. Supervisor of Elections Penelope Townsley reported that 500 people have proven their citizenship and 15 admitted they were noncitizens.
Townsley restored 10 potential noncitizens who had been removed from the rolls after they failed to respond to the certified letter. A spokeswoman said she was concerned about the accuracy of the list.
[…]
