In Florida, Bid to Cut Voter Rolls Is Set Back
MIAMI - Gov. Rick Scott's effort to remove voters who are not American citizens from voter registration rolls, a subject of continuing political controversy, has suffered a one-two punch in the past week.
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled that Florida violated the National Voter Registration Act in trying to "systematically" remove noncitizen voters from the rolls within 90 days of the 2012 presidential election. In the 2-to-1 decision, the judges said that the 90-day provision existed for a reason: to protect citizens from being unfairly denied their right to vote.
"Eligible voters removed days or weeks before Election Day will likely not be able to correct the state's errors in time to vote," the court ruled.
The program to identify and remove noncitizens from the rolls prompted a national outcry and several lawsuits in 2012 because it was riddled with mistakes and was being pushed through months before the election. A number of people on the lists, which were sent by the state to county election supervisors, were, in fact, citizens (including the two lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit).
Election supervisors refused to continue the program, saying the lists, which were created using a driver's license database, were inaccurate. Only a few voters out of thousands were found to be wrongly registered to vote.
"Election integrity means making sure that legitimate voters aren't wrongfully removed from the rolls," Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, said in a statement, reacting to the appellate court ruling. "The decision vindicates the important role the National Voter Registration Act provides in protecting eligible voters from these kinds of last-minute purges."
But even before this week's ruling by the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit - which weighed in only on the timing of the noncitizen removal program - Florida's secretary of state, Ken Detzner, had decided to temporarily suspend the program.
In a memo last week to county election supervisors, Mr. Detzner said he would revisit the project after the Department of Homeland Security finished overhauling its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database. The overhaul is expected to conclude in 2015. The state planned to use the database this year to crosscheck the citizenship of voters.
The temporary halt also came amid concerns from county election supervisors who did not think the project was ready to be rolled out again. With the midterm elections only seven months away, the supervisors expressed concern that the federal database was not reliable enough to ensure the accuracy of the lists and could lead to a damaging replay of 2012.
The noncitizen voter project carries significant political implications for Governor Scott, who spearheaded the effort and continues to support it. The uproar surrounding the 2012 effort hurt his efforts to court Hispanics, some of whom viewed it as anti-immigrant and an attempt to suppress their vote. Hispanics were among the most likely to wind up on the voter lists.
Mr. Scott is running again this year, and Hispanics are a critical voting bloc. A renewed voter purge, particularly one with flaws, would undercut his attempts to win them over.
But the governor has not given up on the project. Asked about it last week, shortly after Mr. Detzner's memo was circulated, Mr. Scott said the integrity of voter rolls was paramount.
"You know, my main concern is about the sacred right to vote," he said. "The national database is doing some changes. The secretary of state's office is working with them. So, they are working to make sure everything is right. I don't want anybody's sacred right to be diluted."