In GOP victory, Florida to get access to feds' list of noncitizens

6:52 p.m. EST, July 14, 2012|By Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee Bureau Chief

TALLAHASSEE ? The federal government has agreed to give Florida access to a law-enforcement database to check the legal status of voters suspected of not being U.S. citizens, a move that comes after months of protestations by Gov. Rick Scott and a legal standoff over his push to verify the state's voter rolls.

The Republican governor has argued for months that the state had non-U.S. citizens on its voter rolls and a duty to ensure its database of more than 11 million registered voters was accurate.

But civil rights groups have pushed back, saying the effort could wind up removing eligible voters because of inaccurate information, and Democrats have called it an intentional attempt to "purge" minority voters.

Last month, Scott's administration won a battle with the U.S. Justice Department when a federal judge ruled that Florida could continue its efforts to scrub its rolls.

In a letter dated Monday to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas reiterated that so long as Florida has the ability to uniquely identify the registered voters, it could make arrangements to access what's known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

Scott put out a statement Saturday calling the decision "a significant victory for Florida and for the integrity of our election system."

"We've already confirmed that non-citizens have voted in past elections here in Florida," Scott said in the statement.

"Now that we have the cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security, our state can use the most accurate citizenship database in the nation to protect the integrity of Florida's election process."

Following the decision, Detzner sent a letter Saturday to county election supervisors statewide advising them that the state would begin verifying previous names of voters it had identified as potentially illegal voters on the rolls.

"Based on the work we have completed during the past year, it is an unfortunate but now undeniable fact that Florida's voter rolls include a number of non-citizens. These ineligible registered voters must be removed to ensure the integrity of our elections. Under our new partnership with DHS, the Department of State is now better equipped to accurately identify these non-citizens through a careful and deliberate process not possible only days ago," Detzner said in the letter.

In a lawsuit in late June, the Justice Department had argued that the state's attempt to remove 2,600 potential noncitizens from the voter rolls violated a federal law that prohibits the systemic removal of voters within 90 days before an election. That's to make sure enough time is available to fix mistakes that could block an eligible person from voting.

Department attorneys also said that voters' rights were violated because many U.S. citizens had received letters questioning their citizenship and threatening to remove them from the voting rolls.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, though, ruled that the 90-day provision did not apply to removing noncitizens, who can't legally register to vote.

Civil rights groups have also filed their own lawsuits alleging the voter "purge" is discriminatory.

"Florida voters are counting on their state and federal governments to cooperate in a way that ensures elections are fair, beginning with ensuring the voter rolls are current and accurate," Detzner said. "We now have a commitment to cooperate from DHS and we look forward to a partnership that improves the integrity of our election process."

Since the state released its list of 2,600 names, at least 107 would-be voters have been proven to be noncitizens by county supervisors, though hundreds more were legally registered.

The Department of State began its review of the rolls last fall and initially produced a list of 180,000 voters who were flagged as potentially ineligible.

The department has delayed releasing that list to media organizations, and State Department spokesman Chris Cate said Saturday the agency considered it "out of date" and would begin developing a new list once it finalized an agreement with the federal government for access to the SAVE data.

Florida has agreed that it can challenge voters only if the state provides a "unique identifier," such as an "alien number," for each person in question. Alien numbers generally are assigned to foreigners living in the country legally, often with visas or other permits such as green cards. Unless they become naturalized citizens, however, they cannot vote.

The agreement will prevent Florida from using only a name and birthdate to seek federal data about a suspected noncitizen on voter rolls.

The SAVE list is unlikely to catch illegal immigrants in any state who might have managed to register to vote because such people typically would not have an alien number.

Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/orlandosentinelbreakingnews/~3/i13pZz6H9VQ/story01.htm

overboard east of eden weather radio indiana autoimmune disease westboro baptist church news channel 9