The big questions is, can anything be done prior to the November election on this lawsuit? Will Florida get the information they need to purge the Florida voter rolls of those who are not legally entitled to vote?
(The Hill) Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said he will sue the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move forward with his controversial attempt to purge the voter rolls in his state of ineligible voters.
“I have a job to do to defend the right of legitimate voters,†Scott told Fox News on Monday. “We’ve been asking for the Department of Homeland Security’s database, SAVE, for months, and they haven’t given it to us. So this afternoon, we will be filing a lawsuit, the secretary of State of Florida, against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database. We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.â€
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner produced the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. district court on Monday, shortly after, along with a statement.
“For nearly a year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet its legal obligation to provide us the information necessary to identify and remove ineligible voters from Florida’s voter rolls,†Detzner said. “We can’t let the federal government delay our efforts to uphold the integrity of Florida elections any longer. We’ve filed a lawsuit to ensure the law is carried out and we are able to meet our obligation to keep the voter rolls accurate and current.â€
It begs the question, why has DHS been so unresponsive? Is it just sheer incompetence? The Central Government taking a long time to get anything done, as seems typical (think about that when we’re talking about Government being in charge of your health care!)? Or politics?
Republicans argue that state voter registration rolls are filled with noncitizens and others that are ineligible to vote. Democrats argue that the GOP is trying to strip voting rights from groups that tend to vote Democratic, and that there are only a handful of cases of voter fraud of the kind the GOP seeks to root out.
Well, yes, we do want to strip the ability to vote from those who are not US citizens, and these illegal aliens would vote Democrat, as it is primarily Democrats who want to provide them with amnesty. Also, convicted felons. Consider how often Democrats have attempted to, and actually succeeded, in blocking overseas American military member from having their votes counted. Many were discarded in the last three presidential elections, which is what Democrats wanted, since the military mostly votes Republican.
Democrats constantly complain about voter fraud. Yet, when it comes to actually stopping it, they balk at measures. They’ve pitched a fit over requiring ID. But, don’t forget to bring your ID if you plan on attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. It’s required.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
The Feds’ position on this is so warped. First, as you note, DHS held back information to which Florida was legally allowed to have. That information would have made the purging of the voter rolls much easier and much more accurate. The withholding of the SAVE database caused the purging of the rolls to take longer. The Federal government cannot be the root cause of the delay and then claim it has the right to shut something down because of that cause.
Secondly, the DOJ is claiming the state cannot purge voter rolls as this would be a violation of the 1964 Voters Rights Act. The DOJ is wrong in this as well. The VRA specifies certain counties that cannot change laws regarding voting. It is not laws that are being changed here – it is voting rolls that are being cleansed according to the law. Furthermore, the State of Florida is not an entity covered under the provisions of the VRA which requires oversight by the DOJ. Even if one were to agree the DOJ can shut down the purge in certain covered counties, the DOJ cannot extend the law to cover the entire state as they have done here.
This is another case of the DOJ making a power grab under Holder without any accountability.
Is anyone shocked here Gitarcarver? This whole administration makes Putin\Stalin\Chavez\Castro’s heavy anti-freedom administrations look like runner’s up.
And, I am ashamed at the Republicans have been wussing out on holding this Administration accountable. While there are a few in Congress that are willing to stand toe-to-toe with Obama and his henchmen, others in leadership positions still want to play politics. Or worse, nothing at all.
However, my questions is, why does the state of Florida need the DHS database, or approval, or permission, … or even care that the DHS is refusing that database? The state is its own authority over who and how people vote. Shouldn’t it have its own knowledge over who is alive and dead and who is legal or not? If not, then there are more problems in FL than the DHS overbearing attitude.
There is a three word answer to your question: the 2000 elections.
If you remember, prior to the 2000 elections the state of Florida, under a court order out of Miami Dade went to clean up its voter rolls as there was massive fraud in the elections. (It was one of the very few bipartisan things people did. There was fraud by Republicans and Democrats.)
Ross Perot’s company was hired to purge the voting rolls but found out to the horror of the state and the company that there were not enough data categories to differentiate people. It was difficult to tell the “Gumball_Brains” living in Ft Lauderdale and the “Gumball_Brains” who is a convicted felon living in Tampa. The cleansing of the rolls purged legitimate voters from the voter rolls prior to the 2000 elections.
The SAVE data base has much more information in it. The state can compare, for example, which social security numbers are legitimate or not. In that illegal immigrants will often use forged social security documents, the SAVE database would have helped the State of Florida verify legitimate voters as well as illegal voters. The SAVE database also ties in birth records, driving records etc. The SAVE database would have ensure the accuracy of the voter roll purge.
Besides the issues given above, there is this: the people of the state of Florida helped pay for that database. By law, the DHS has to give the states access to the database when requested for legitimate purposes. One of those legitimate purposes is voter records and the accuracy of the voter rolls. It is black letter law and the DHS refused to give Florida access to the database.
I don’t normally go in for conspiracy theories, but I cannot think of a reason as to why the DHS would refuse access to the database other than they (and by extension the Obama administration) did not want the voting rolls of Florida to be cleaned up. Florida is a close race for the presidency right now and so illegal immigrants and dead folks casting 180,000 votes would be a huge, if not deciding factor.
I don’t agree with a lot of things that Governor Scott does, but on this one he is dead right. He is taking the fight for a fair and impartial election to the DHS and the DOJ. He is refusing to back down and for the first time in a long time, I am happy to say I voted for him.
“The big questions is, can anything be done prior to the November election on this lawsuit? Will Florida get the information they need to purge the Florida voter rolls of those who are not legally entitled to”
Meh. That’s a good question, but the bigger one is “Will Florida be allowed to uphold the law?” We will soon find out if Arizona is allowed to, when the Supreme Court decides it. It will be a long time before we find out if Florida can.
It’s extremely important. A nation without agreed upon laws is not much of a nation.
Anytime anyone is going to clean out corruption and decay, I don’t care which side of the political aisle they sit on, I’m behind them.
When DHS and ICE can get involved in confiscating fake handbag sales and their websites, our corruption goes wayyyyy up the chain.
Or, just as importantly, can the Federal government break the law and then claim others have broken the law because of that violation?
If they can, the Feds are then above the law, and the people and states are without recourse or redress of any kind.
Except for 2. Even many of the populace hated the idea of the first way during our War of Independence. The second tends to get mired in the votes of ignorant, stupid, and selfish people.