Florida Gov. Rick Scott has restarted the effort to remove non-citizens, the dead and other illegal voters from the state’s voter records.
Although the stated goal is to ensure the validity of elections, Scott was again widely criticized by Democrats, who see it as an unnecessary intimidation of minority voters.
Last year, when the governor began his “purge” of voter rolls, in advance of the 2012 presidential elections, a Department of Justice filing in federal district court claimed the state required prior federal approval under Section 5 of the Voting rights Act of 1965.
The DOJ asserted that five Florida counties had to seek permission before adjusting voting records (called pre-clearance): Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee, Hendry and Monroe.
This year, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision in the Voting Rights Act, states and jurisdictions do not need to ask for Section 5 pre-clearance, at least until Congress enacts new coverage formulas based on current demographic conditions.
So for now, Florida continues the search for ineligible voters.
As expected, the same voices who have cried out over last year’s “voter purge” are once again setting their sights on Scott:
The Miami Herald: Governor to launch new purge of Florida voter rolls “[…]Similar searches a year ago were rife with errors, found few ineligible voters and led to lawsuits by advocacy groups that said it disproportionately targeted Hispanics, Haitians and other minority groups. Those searches were handled clumsily and angered county election supervisors, who lost confidence in the state’s list of names.”
The Sun Sentinel: Chan Lowe: Florida voter purge “Nobody questions that it’s a good idea to safeguard the integrity of the voter rolls. The problem comes when you use that laudable goal as a pretext to tilt the table in your political party’s favor.”
Bloomberg: Florida’s Scott Rolls Political Dice With New Voter Purge “[…] in a move to appeal to core supporters that risks losing the backing of key swaths of the electorate. […] it risks reviving memories of polling-place snafus in 2012 and alienating the state’s growing Hispanic population.”
The New York Times: Ruling Revives Florida Review of Voting Rolls “’Governor Scott seemingly is bent on suppressing the vote in Florida, with his latest move coming as an unfortunate result of the recent Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act,’ said Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat.”
Not everyone is critical of Scott’s efforts. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio from Miami announced his support of the governor, shrugging off speculation that voter purge disproportionately affects Latinos.
“How could anyone argue against a state identifying people who are not rightfully on the voter rolls and removing them from the voter rolls?” Rubio told reporters during a Bloomberg event in June.
“I think one is too many,” Rubio added.
