Posted by Tina
The AP reports the following:
Federal authorities are demanding that Florida halt its push to remove ineligible voters from the voter rolls. In a move that comes just months before the state could play a pivotal role in the 2012 presidential election, the U.S. Department of Justice contends that the state is violating federal law in its effort to identify and remove ineligible voters.
Only an unprincipled progressive hack would be against cleaning up the voter rolls…Eric Holder should be fired!
Actually, that is Fox News’s slant on things.
The AP goes into a little more detail, per below:
“Florida’s contentious push to remove ineligible voters from rolls hit additional hurdles when state officials were forced to acknowledge that they may not be able to double-check whether or not as many 182,000 registered voters are U.S. citizens.
“State officials earlier this month announced that they planned to use a federal immigration database that tracks people who are visiting or working in the country to verify the citizenship status of thousands of voters. …
But Secretary of State Kent Detzner in a letter sent Thursday to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the state still cannot gain access to the database and he asked Secretary Janet Napolitano to help. …
A spokesman for Detzner said despite the obstacles, Florida will continue to push supervisors to screen the rolls and remove ineligible voters. Chris Cate said the state is likely to circulate additional names to election supervisors in the weeks ahead. …
Six Democratic members of Congress as well as voting rights groups have called on the state to stop the purge, contending it violates federal voting laws, including one that says voters cannot be removed 90 days before a federal election. Florida’s primary is Aug. 14.
The state’s push is also drawing national media attention since Florida is likely to be a swing state that could decide the 2012 presidential election. This past week, a World War II veteran at a press conference by two Democratic members of Congress pointed out that he was on the state’s initial purge list. …”
And I seem to recall that one of the many problems with the Bush v Gore election was that then too, Florida had bounced a significant number of poor people off the rolls, which the poor people only discovered when they showed up at the polls.
But “legal” or “illegal” don’t really seem to count for much in Florida. The powers just do whatever they want.
As usual there is more to the story then what is reported.
According to the below article Florida has provided information along with a request for assistance to DHS for nine months. But in typical Holder-style of foot-dragging non-response from DC has resulted in Florida decided to move forward to prevent a repeat of the Bush vs. Gore election.
Florida is now within the pre-election the 90 day window and should not be removing names, but their efforts to validate the names seems to have been hindered by those in DC.
“We provided information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security yesterday, and have been doing so for nearly nine months, in hopes that the federal government would help us identify ineligible voters. While this isn’t a response from DHS as to why they haven’t provided us access to their data, at least we know the federal government knows we take ineligible voters on the voter rolls seriously. We hope the federal government will recognize the importance of accurate voter rolls and support our efforts,” Cate wrote.
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Florida defends voter roll ‘purge’ after protest from DOJ:
Florida’s move to remove non-eligible voters from its voter lists began after the state’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott pressed the state to identify non-U.S. citizens who had registered to vote illegally. Using information from the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the state identified more than 100,000 names of non-eligible voters that could potentially be on the lists illegally.
Five counties in Florida are covered by the Voting Rights Act, a landmark piece of legislation that gives the federal government open-ended oversight of states and localities with a history of voter discrimination. Any changes in voting laws and procedures in the covered states must be “pre-cleared” with Washington.
In his letter, Herren also said the move appeared to violate a provision that prevents states from removing voters from rolls less than 90 days ahead of an election. Florida will hold a primary vote on August 14.
Cate said his department had not yet thoroughly reviewed the Department of Justice letter, but that they were “firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot.”
“We provided information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security yesterday, and have been doing so for nearly nine months, in hopes that the federal government would help us identify ineligible voters. While this isn’t a response from DHS as to why they haven’t provided us access to their data, at least we know the federal government knows we take ineligible voters on the voter rolls seriously. We hope the federal government will recognize the importance of accurate voter rolls and support our efforts,” Cate wrote.
Read more: http://www.kcra.com/news/politics/Florida-defends-voter-roll-purge-after-protest-from-DOJ/-/11797268/14423234/-/aor8ccz/-/index.html#ixzz1wZdyB3uO
This is a serious matter, but I can’t help it…it is just too funny watching Democrats protect and defend ineligible voters. They might as well just admit it…they cannot win if they cannot cheat. Cheating, tricks, bribes, intimidation…is this a political party or a mob?
I would say its more of a mob, but I’ve always held a very low opinion of democrats. -Jack
“… it is just too funny watching Democrats protect and defend ineligible voters.”
But Tina, Florida admits it doesn’t really know whether the 182K are eligible or not … but they do know the 182K are likely to vote Dem … and that’s grounds enough … apparently.
But Libby it doesn’t matter how they would cast their votes…and how do you, or they, know how they would vote. The whole point of the investigation is to ensure, as best they can, a clean election. NOBODY want to count hanging chads again!
IF some people on the rolls are found to be INELIGIBLE to vote they should be removed. IF they are found to be legal residents and they fill all requirements they should remain. No one has suggested only ineligible democrat voters should be removed and to suggest that is what is happening is absurd.
One of the tactics of progressive voter cheating is to make an accusation without evidence…to set the stage for outrage. You are a good little scout. Tell me, Libby, do you object because you approve of cheating or because you are opposed to clean elections?
By the way, have you heard that the Massachusetts Democrats are requiring Photo ID for their convention this weekend?
It turns out that blacks, Hispanics, and Democrats also support voter photo ID. The Rasmussen poll is from last December; the Vanderbilt poll from May of 2012:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/december_2011/69_say_photo_id_voting_laws_are_not_discriminatory
http://rnla.org/blogs/blogs/public/archive/2012/05/29/most-democrats-and-most-minorities-support-voter-id-in-tennessee.aspx
The radical progressive fringe of the Democrat Party, representing 20% or less of the public, is against voter ID.
They cant win if they dont cheat Hugh Hewitt
Wait. I thought that Florida is violating the voting rights act by not giving these voters 90 days before an election to do this purge. I have read of at least three cases where people were being purged for no reason. Why should these seniors have to request a hearing within 30 days just to keep their right to vote when they didn’t do anything wrong?
I’m sorry but I believe the right to vote is one of our most important and I don’t trust our worthless government to determine that people are or are not eligible. Especially when there have been so many mistakes. Two of the people purged were WWII veterans. Not a great way to treat those who served our country. Taking away their right to vote.
I think it is the responsibility of conservatives to speak out against this. It is a total violation of our civil rights and we should not support it just because Rick Scott is a REpublican.
Princess they worked within the law to do everything they could to make sure only those who are eligible to vote remain on the rolls. Those they found to be questionable were not “purged”. That is a loaded word used to make people think something illegal is going on and it isn’t. Names were removed AFTER they investigated and found them to be dead, in the US illegally, or they had moved.
Names and addresses were checked against motor vehicle records, death records, and Homeland Security. Eric Holder had plenty of time to cooperate as Peggy indicated. The intent was to remove only names that were ineligible.
Three cases of error compared to 58 thousand dead voters and 100,000 possible others that needed to be removed so cheaters couldn’t pretend to be them demonstrates both the need to do this and the necessity of voter photo ID.
Those who are responsible for oversight of voter rolls must be as certain as possible that every voter is legally eligible to vote so they can certify the count in the election, which they are required to do by law.
The two WWII vets should have been put right back in the register when the error was discovered and they should have been given an apology for the mistake. I bet they did get one and i bet it was accepted graciously.
This is an effort to clean up the election and discourage cheating. Isn’t that something conservatives should champion?
I have read three separate cases that required the person involved to request a hearing within 30 days of the letter being sent out to restore their rights. If they do not have that hearing they cannot vote. These people are citizens and have done nothing wrong.
I’m sorry, but I do not trust government employees with something this serious. Florida is taking the right to vote away from people who do not deserve it. That is wrong. This issue is too serious to allow for mistakes and mistakes have been made. If a Democratic governor was doing this we would be outraged and justifiably so. I’m not going to defend it just because Rick Scott is a Republican.
Princess you are right to be skeptical about government employees, after all, they are human and therefore subject to error as well as bad intentions.
Florida is not “taking away the right” to vote. Florida has taken steps to ensure that voters with the right to vote can vote and those who do not qualify cannot be exploited.
Thirty days should be more than enough time to remedy the three errors and if I were the person in charge I would see to it personally, even if I had to go to their residences to do it.
It’s equally possible that the three voters complaining are Democrats up to no good! They too are people and subject to error and bad intentions. Perhaps they are scheming to muddy the waters and discredit a noble effort to have clean elections.
Removing thousands of ineligible voters from the rolls will make cheating less likely and support a clean election.
Government is infallible when it’s doing what Tina wants it to do.
Voter fraud allegations already going on in Wisconsin and voter ID suspended.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1671125706001/voter-fraud-investigation-in-wisconsin-recall/
Very funny, Chris. Also silly.
Government is not something we can dispense with and I have never said we should. This is government at the local level actually doing what it is charged to do.
My comments are a result of two very simple things: 1. Efforts are being made all around the country to ensure that voter rolls are clean so this isn’t a case of a rogue partisan administrator but a response to concerns of the people, and 2. Common sense. If anything untoward were happening a lot more than three people would be up in arms about it.
Peggy, care to make prediction on the election in general?
Sure, I’ll try. Let’s see how many I get right.
1. Pres. – Romney (That’s one right)
2. Senate – Emken (Fingers crossed)
3. 1st Congress Dist – (Will be to close to call)
4. 3rd Assembly Dist – Bob Williams
5. Prop. 28 – No
6. Prop. 29 – No
7. Butte Co. Measure A – No