Detzner asks Homeland Security to help with voter purge
By MICHAEL PELTIER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, May 31, 2012.......Acknowledging that a list being used to try to find potentially ineligible voters has flaws, Florida's top election official on Thursday asked for help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to in culling names of those non-citizens who shouldn't be allowed to vote.
In a two-page letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner formally requested assistance from the federal agency in identifying potentially ineligible voters.
The state's Division of Elections has been heavily criticized for notifying some voters that they are ineligible to vote based on a search of a driver license database meant to produce a list of non-citizens. Some of those voters have been able to prove they are actually citizens and legally eligible to vote – leading critics to complain that the agency is trying to purge voters who aren't ineligible.
While asking for more help in identifying ineligible voters amounts to an acknowledgement that the current list isn't fully adequate, Detzner also defended it.
"As you may be aware, my department has received credible and reliable information from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles indicating non-citizens may be registered to vote in Florida," Detzner wrote. "While processing this new information, it became clear that our department's ability to validate a person's legal status as up-to-date was limited."
State election officials earlier this year said as many as 180,000 names may be erroneously included on state voter rolls. So far, officials have sent more than 2,600 of those names to local officials, who then have been notifying voters when they're on the list.
Detzner is asking the Homeland Security director to allow the state to access its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, a national registry that is updated much more frequently than the state's.
Democrats have railed against the purge, saying that the department's efforts unfairly target Democrats and Hispanics. Gov. Rick Scott and election officials have defended the review, saying they simply want to make sure only eligible voters cast ballots in upcoming elections.
"I have a duty to ensure Florida's voter registration rolls are current and accurate," Detzner wrote.
Thursday's requests came the same day a federal judge blocked a portion of a 2011 election law that among other things required signatures of newly registered voters to be turned over to state officials within 48 hours.
Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction against portions of the law, saying a coalition of plaintiffs including the League of Women Voters was likely to succeed in its effort to scuttle that part of the law requiring the quick turnaround on new voter registration, saying it was impractical.
