Judge: Florida Voter Purge Can Go On

Miami Herald ^ | Thursday 10-04-12 | Patricia Mazzei

[Elle Bee]

Keys election chief: I'm done purging voter rolls

Monroe County's part in the Florida voter purge of 2012 has ended, says Elections Supervisor Harry L. Sawyer Jr.

"Unless we hear from someone who says he or she is not a citizen, we're not removing anyone else from the voting roll," Sawyer said Monday.

"We do have a clear understanding of the National Voter Registration Act and we have to conform to it," Sawyer said. "We are not going to break the law even if the governor thinks we should."

A list sent out by Gov. Rick Scott's administration in May notified Sawyer that four people on Monroe County's voting roll might not be U.S. citizens. The statewide list of about 2,700 names was compiled from state drivers-license records of non-citizens.

"I didn't think four names out of nearly 50,000 voters in Monroe County was too bad," Sawyer said. At press time, Sawyer's books showed 48,155 registered local voters.

Sawyer sent certified letters to each of the four, asking them to clarify their status. One person responded that she is not a legal citizen. That person was dropped from the roll.

Florida officials are now seeking to compare thousands of more names from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles' non-citizen roster against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's immigration database.

Federal officials refused, saying Florida needs to provide more specifics before receiving unfettered access to the national database. Monday, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to demand access.

In turn, an assistant U.S. attorney general said the Department of Justice plans to sue Florida for violating national law on voting rights by attempting to purge voting rolls too close to an election.

"The voting roll should be clean and we do our best," Sawyer said. "But we have to make sure that we don't take good names off the roll."

With the Aug. 14 primary and Nov. 6 general election nearing, Sawyer said, "Our office is in election mode. We're not going to do anything major other than new registrations and address or name changes."

"We're not going to get too excited about what's going on in Tallahassee now," he said. "We worry about Monroe County."

The state's overall list sent out last month "was old and not accurate," Sawyer said. "It has problems."

State officials have said they expect local elections supervisors to handle the investigation into suspect registrations. A former police officer, Sawyer said he not about to launch an inquiry "based on information when you tell me it's not that good."

"I know probable cause when I see it," he said," and it has not arrived."

Sawyer, a Republican retiring after this term, said state officials have not pressured him to pursue any investigation.

But staff at the main Monroe County elections office went in one recent morning to find its fax machine clogged by "40 to 50 faxes" from a South Florida Tea Party group "demanding" that Homeland Security open its database.

The forms -- "a stack a half-inch thick," Sawyer said -- were identical except each had a different sender name. There were no addresses to know if they are Monroe County residents.

"It bothered me because our office has no authority to demand anything of the federal government," Sawyer said.

Ron Labasky, general counsel to the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, said most elections offices have halted work on the state purge.

"Most counties got from one to four or five names," from the state list, Labasky said Tuesday. "The more populous counties like Miami-Dade and Hillsborough got more."

When "a significant number" of voters from the state list turned out to be legal, most offices have stopped pursuing it "based on lack of quality information," he said.

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[sten]

unfortunately, the names on the ballot are not checked for eligibility. EVERY federal office requires the person to be a US citizen. NO candidate has had this verified... or the further requirement for POTUS (natural born citizen)

although illegals cannot vote... they have no problem running for office