DOJ Orders Fla To Halt Voter Purge

azmastablasta

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Now just stop it, don't you know how much time it took for community organizers to comb through death records and graveyards to build this list?

The Justice Department told Florida election officials that they must stop their non-citizen voters purge. Florida argues it is not violating any law.
By Marc Caputo
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Thursday, 05.31.12

The Justice Department ordered Florida’s elections division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state’s voter rolls of noncitizen voters.

Florida’s effort appears to violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities, and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act – which governs voter purges – T. Christian Herren Jr., the Justice Department’s lead civil rights lawyer, wrote in a detailed two-page letter sent late Thursday night.

State officials said they were reviewing the letter. But they indicated they might fight DOJ over its interpretation of federal law and expressed frustration that President Barack Obama’s administration has stonewalled the state’s noncitizen voter hunt for nine months.

“We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot,” said Chris Cate, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who was ordered by Gov. Rick Scott to conduct the search for potentially ineligible voters.

DOJ’s written demand came hours after the agency refused to comment on the matter to The Miami Herald. It also followed a federal court ruling Thursday that struck down a Republican voter-registration law that a judge found too onerous.

So far, Florida has flagged 2,700 potential noncitizen voters and sent the list to county elections supervisors, who have found the data and methodology to be flawed and problematic. The list of potential noncitizen voters – many of whom have turned out to be lawful citizens and voters – disproportionately hits minorities, especially Hispanics.

About 58 percent of those flagged as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, a Miami Herald analysis found. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters.

Independent voters and Democrats are the most likely to face being purged from the rolls. Republicans and non-Hispanic whites are the least likely.

Under the Voting Rights Act, Florida needs federal approval before it makes changes to voting because five Florida counties – Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry – had minority-voting troubles decades ago

"Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the Attorney General for administrative review as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act," Herren wrote.

"Accordingly, it is necessary that they either be brought before that court or submitted to the Attorney General for a determination that they neither have the purpose nor will have the effect of discriminating on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group under Section 5."

He gave the state until next Wednesday to inform the Justice Department of its planned course of action.

“Specifically, please advise whether the State intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the Department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary,” Herren wrote.

Herren also said that the National Voter Registration Act bans Florida’s effort because it says “a State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.”

Florida elections officials have repeatedly said that their efforts comply with all federal laws, which aren’t clearly written. The also say there’s nothing discriminatory or partisan about the effort. It’s simply trying to remove ineligible voters: felons, dead people and noncitizens.

To spot noncitizens, though, the state began comparing voter rolls with a Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle database that contains some citizenship information that the agency collects when people get a state ID such as a driver’s license.

But the citizenship data in many cases is out of date. That is, many people become citizens after they get their ID and then register to vote. But the highway safety database isn’t updated.

As a result, the state has performed its own checking and double-checking and winnowed down a pool of 180,000 potential noncitizens to a list of about 2,700. It is asking the counties to contact the voters by mail. Those who don’t respond within about two months of being contacted could be stricken from the rolls.

A coalition of liberal-leaning civil rights groups complained to the Justice Department and the state about the process, pointing out that it burdens citizens instead of the government.

Cate, the state elections spokesman, said the state will have a full response soon. The agency also seemed to express frustration with the lack of help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which maintains citizenship data but won’t share its database with Florida.

Detzner asked again for DHS help on Thursday.

“We provided information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security today in hopes that the federal government would help us identify ineligible voters,” Cate said. “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.”


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/31/2826708_p2/feds-demand-florida-cease-its.html#storylink=cpy
 


Quote: The Justice Department ordered Florida’s elections division to halt a systematic effort to find and purge the state’s voter rolls of noncitizen voters.

Florida’s effort appears to violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protects minorities, and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act – which governs voter purges – T. Christian Herren Jr., the Justice Department’s lead civil rights lawyer, wrote in a detailed two-page letter sent late Thursday night.




Well HB & Rimmy, just how do you defend this obomination? If this is not a blatant effort to stuff ballot boxes, I don't know what the he[[ it is!

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Regards,
hm
 
Kinda brings to mind the one county in South Texas in 2008 where there were more votes cast for Obama than the number of all the residents of the county combined.
 
The problem is widespread, more than likely because Democrats are widespread. It's not so disturbing to find dead people on the rolls, it's understandable how that happens. The problem is, they are still voting long after death. There is no denying this is occurring, below is the tip of the iceberg, but DOJ does not want the rolls corrected? Hmm, wonder why?

From Ballotpedia:

Names of deceased on registration lists

When the Poughkeepsie Journal in New York did a 2006 analysis of how names of deceased people were still on New York's official list of registered voters, it conducted the assessment by matching "the names, dates of birth and ZIP codes of all listed voters in New York's database of 11.7 million voter registration records against the same information in the Social Security Administration's 'Death Master File,' a database of 77 million records of deaths dating to 1937." That study resulted in a final estimate of as many as 77,000 dead people on its rolls, and that as many as 2,600 of them had cast votes from the grave.
Episodes in 2008
California

In October, KTVU Channel 2 cross-checked California's state death registry record across voter lists in the nine Bay Area counties, finding that in eight elections in the last ten years, "232 people with death certificates had voted after they had died – some more than once." 153 of these cases were from one county, Alameda. Karin MacDonald, the director of the Election Administration Research Center at UC-Berkeley, said "Probably what we're looking at is a lot of administrative error. There may very well be someone in there that somebody has voted for. Absolutely."

Dave MacDonald, the Registrar of Voters for Alameda County, said that his office attempts to keep the list of registered voters updated through the process of obtaining a file from the department of health "once or twice a year of everyone who's died in California and then we apply that to our voter registration database." He said he believes the irregularities on the voter list have to do with bookkeeping errors.
Connecticut

Election officials in Connecticut removed names from the state's voter rolls after journalism students found that thousands of dead people were still registered to vote. After conducting their own investigation, students at the University of Connecticut said this spring that about 8,500 dead people remained registered to vote. The Connecticut Secretary of State worked with local registrars to remove more than 5,200 of those names from the rolls. The deaths of about 1,300 people on the students' list could not be confirmed, though they were moved to the "inactive" list. But 45 of the "dead" voters were actually alive. That highlights the balancing act undertaken by state officials, who recognize the potential for fraud when dead people remain registered to vote, but must also ensure that eligible citizens are able to exercise their right to vote.
Florida

A study conducted by the Florida Sun Sentinel in late October 2008 found:

More than 65,000 ineligible and duplicate voters on Florida's registration rolls.
600 dead people on the list.

Mississippi

Madison County, Mississippi has 123% more registered voters than people over the age of 18. 486 people on the list of registered voters are over 105. 190,000 new voters have registered for the 2008 election.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says, "It is terrible. Combined with the fact that we don't have voter ID in Mississippi, anybody can show up at any poll that happens to know the people who have left town or died -- and go vote for them. Whenever we have a third party determined by payment, for example, as they did in Benton County -- 'walking-around' money -- and they determine what that vote is going to be, they've taken your vote, whether they may have voted like you would have or not, they've still thwarted the process and they've still have taken your vote away from you."
Rhode Island

CBS News Issued a report that Rhode Island is one of nineteen states according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Law School has claimed that Rhode Island is ignoring a law that prohibits states from "purging" voters 90 days before an election. Rhode Island Election Officals disagree with the report claiming that their own state law against illegal purging stops the voter roll purging problem.

States and counties regularly update their voter registration rolls for accuracy, removing people who have moved, died, or committed a felony. It is known as "voter purging." However, there are no national standards for the process, and as a result, the cleaning up of voter rolls is not as precise as it should be and eligible voters are often wrongly removed.

"What's wrong with the process is it's happening in secret. It's happening with no accountability," Michael Waldman, the center’s executive director, told CBS News.
Texas
Dallas County

Melvin Porter, although he died in January 2007, cast a vote in the March 4, 2008 Democratic primary in Dallas County. A subsequent investigation by Texas Watchdog turned up the names of 6,000 dead voters on the Dallas County list of registered voters.
Harris County

More than 4,000 people's names are listed both on Harris County’s voter rolls and also in a federal database of death records, a Texas Watchdog analysis has found.

Dozens have apparently cast ballots from beyond the grave, records since 2004 show. One expert says the number of deceased names used to cast ballots may be higher than what Texas Watchdog’s analysis found. Instances of dead voters’ names being used to cast ballots were most frequent in three elections, the November 2004 general election, the November 2006 general election and the March 2008 Democratic primary, the analysis found.

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Dead_people_voting
 
Since voter turnout is about 50%, much less in mid-term elections, if I decide to go cast a ballot for someone else in a precinct, then I have a 50/50 chance of not getting caught and my ballot counting. And if I show up and that person has already voted that day, it's not like the little old white haired lady handing out ballots is going to detain me. I could just walk out the door mumbling about a mistake and I need to get my wallet, and go try another precinct.

That is why we need voter id laws.
 
Quote:A coalition of liberal-leaning civil rights groups complained to the Justice Department and the state about the process, pointing out that it burdens citizens instead of the government.


Let's see the state has reviewed the voter registration list, cross checked through Driver License Bureau database, death records, checked, double checked, and rechecked, while being stonewalled by Department of Homeland Security, and narrowed the list from 180,000 to 2700 potential illegally registered voters. They're going to send all of those individuals a notice, and all they have to do is reply with proper paperwork to prove their eligibility to vote, and they'll be given 2 months to do so.

Uhmmmm... How big a burden is it to drive by the court house and say, "I got this notice in the mail, and here's my papers where I was granted Naturalized Citizen Status." That is really difficult!!

I think all 50 states should file individual suits against the current administration, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and the Democratic National Convention.
 
I think the problem is that they were purging some legitimate voters and they made the decision to monkey with the voter rolls too close to the election....it gives the appearance that Republicans might be trying to steal Florida...again. Of course, what do I know? I got that information off MSNBC.
 
You may be right HB. After the final vote Mr. Bush (fine man) still won Florida. What, MSNBC lied about that to. I wasn't watching the rabid Ed Show back then.
 
I wonder if the Dems will be chartering buses full of people with no identification from polling place to polling place again in the next election?
 
Originally Posted By: HunterBear71I think the problem is that they were purging some legitimate voters and they made the decision to monkey with the voter rolls too close to the election....it gives the appearance that Republicans might be trying to steal Florida...again. Of course, what do I know? I got that information off MSNBC.

Too close to the election? The election is a full 5 months away and it is my understanding that any alien removed from the Fl. voter list can easily be reinstated by simply providing proof that he/she is a naturalized citizen. Is that too much to ask in order to assure an honest election?

Was the voter ID law, passed by the Texas legislature last year, also too close to the election, thus blocked by Holder? Statistics show that minority voting increases where voter ID is required at the polls. I suspect that this is due to the additional publicity making minority voters more aware of the elections.

In all fairness to you, HB, you do not live near the border (and Fla. is very similar due to the proximity to Cuba and high influx of aliens) and you probably do not witness first hand the voter irregularities that ensue.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: HunterBear71I think the problem is that they were purging some legitimate voters and they made the decision to monkey with the voter rolls too close to the election....it gives the appearance that Republicans might be trying to steal Florida...again. Of course, what do I know? I got that information off MSNBC.



I think the problem is, the DOJ is drinking from the same KoolAid jug you do HB! The state of Florida has gone out of its way to make sure everything was legal about this. The notices were sent to all the precints on it, they've held meetings to discuss it with the election officials, and while the officials themselves didn't like it a whole lot, they have tried to implement it smoothly, and resolve all problems before they run into them. Now the DOJ is going to impose it's biased opinion on immigration on the state of Florida?
 
Originally Posted By: Rocky1Originally Posted By: HunterBear71I think the problem is that they were purging some legitimate voters and they made the decision to monkey with the voter rolls too close to the election....it gives the appearance that Republicans might be trying to steal Florida...again. Of course, what do I know? I got that information off MSNBC.



I think the problem is, the DOJ is drinking from the same KoolAid jug you do HB! The state of Florida has gone out of its way to make sure everything was legal about this. The notices were sent to all the precints on it, they've held meetings to discuss it with the election officials, and while the officials themselves didn't like it a whole lot, they have tried to implement it smoothly, and resolve all problems before they run into them. Now the DOJ is going to impose it's biased opinion on immigration on the state of Florida?




That about covers it, Rocky!

Regards,
hm
 
Speaking of voting, found a real timesaver at the polls in S. Texas. It all started when I had to make a trip to the emergency room at the local hospital. Not wanting to sit there for 4 hours, I put on my MAGIC GREEN HAT. When I went into the E.R., I noticed that 3/4 of the people got up and left.

I guess they decided that they weren't that sick after all. Cut at least 3 hours off my waiting time.

Here's the hat.

cid_007f01cd4147c9d02fc0700cb748yourf78bf48ce2.jpg


That's when I got the idea of wearing it to vote; it saved me 5 hours at the polls.

At the Laundromat, three minutes after entering, I had my choice of any machine, most still running.

But...don't try it at McDonald's. The whole crew got up and left and l never got my order!

Regards,
hm
 
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