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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn Florida, Scott Administration Vows To Accelerate Voter Purge: ‘There Will Be More Names’
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/30/491997/in-florida-scott-administration-vows-to-accelerate-voter-purge-there-will-be-more-names/In Florida, Scott Administration Vows To Accelerate Voter Purge: There Will Be More Names
By Judd Legum on May 30, 2012 at 9:13 am
The massive voter purge order by Governor Rick Scott in Florida has been plagued with errors, resulting in election officials notifying hundreds of eligible U.S. citizens that they are ineligible to vote.
In response, the Scott administration has vowed to intensify their efforts to remove registered voters from the rolls.
Initially, the state created a list of over 180,000 purported non-citizens by comparing their list of registered voters to the state motor vehicle database. The state forwarded about 2700 names from that list to local officials to remove from the rolls. Yesterday, in the face of mounting problems with the limited effort, Scott administration officials made it clear they were just getting started:
He said the state continues to identify ineligible voters, saying the state Division of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has agreed to update information using a federal database that the elections division couldnt access directly.
We wont be sending any new names to supervisors until the information we have is updated, because we always want to make sure we are using the best information available, Cate wrote. I dont have a timetable on when the next list of names will be sent to supervisors, but there will be more names.
more...
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/30/491997/in-florida-scott-administration-vows-to-accelerate-voter-purge-there-will-be-more-names/
gordianot
(15,249 posts)madashelltoo
(1,705 posts)Scott rode in on insanity, he governs by insanity and he will be derailed by insanity. Keep on pushing, Scott. Just a little more and you will be where you want to be. Home, watching FOX all day.
Hubert Flottz
(37,726 posts)I hope the DOJ looks into the goings on in Florida.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)RandiFan1290
(6,260 posts)DAVIE Bill Internicola, 91, American-born, winner of the Bronze Star for valor at the Battle of the Bulge and a lifelong voter, received a letter recently from the Broward Supervisor of Elections saying the state has doubts that he is a U.S. citizen and challenging his right to vote.
"It was an insult," said Internicola, who was decorated for his service as a medic during the epic winter battle of 1944-45 in Belgian forests, which took 20,000 American lives. "I was flabbergasted."
Tuesday, U.S Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, and Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, appeared at a press conference with Internicola saying that the veteran, a Democrat, is only one of thousands of persons who could be unfairly removed from voter rolls in a purge headed by Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott and his Department of Elections.
Florida elections officials recently announced that they had found 180,000 persons registered to vote in the state who may not be U.S. citizens. The source they used was Florida Department of Highway Safety data that lists non-citizens licensed to drive in Florida. Elections officials said they found some of those same names on voter rolls.
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)who was told she wasn't a citizen either, was a DEMOCRAT also. Interesting that both these people were born in other states. Waiting to get mine in the mail too.
mike dub
(541 posts)Rick Scott himself isn't a Florida native. He's (a "foreigner", as some Southerners say) from Illinois.
I guess it's all good as long as you have an R next to your name.
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)again? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChoicePoint for a summary of the science of disfranchising eligible voters with delibertely faulty lists of alleged 'ineligibles'.
lpbk2713
(42,772 posts)Florida can't afford to wait until the next election. This known criminal needs to be removed from office NOW.
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)He's very old. One less Democratic vote. I guess that is the plan. Florida has a lot of Seniors; not all of them are Hispanic either. How many Senior Dems will just give up and not vote?
This is why someone has to get involved to HELP THEM.
Pathwalker
(6,600 posts)of the US? Last night, Lawrence O'Donnell had a WW2 vet on who received one of these letters, stating that he was not a VALID citizen of the US. He was born on Brooklyn, NY, and received a Purple Heart & a Bronze Star serving in the Battle of the Bulge as a medic.
They declared him to be NOT an American citizen!! I didn't think ANY state had this authority, and it pisses me off and scares me at the same time. STILL boycotting Florida.
HillWilliam
(3,310 posts)Or anybody else? Or are they just going to let the repigs steal another one in FL?
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)the DOJ is looking into this matter; but just hasn't disclosed its investigation.
My question is where the hell is the ACLU and/or every other legal organization that claims to be fighting for the U.S. Constitution?
The DOJ is chock full of risk-adverse career bureaucrats in a sea of partisan waters. I can tell you ... governmental (federal and state) law enforcement lawyers operate exactly opposite from other legal agencies. The typical litigation/non-litigation decision path goes as follows:
1. Is this a slam-dunk case with direct photographic/electronic smoking gun evidence and/or a highly placed and unimpeachable whistle-blower?
If yes, go to #2; If no, go to #7
2. Can we win the case on the cheap?
If yes, go to #3 ; If No, go to #3
3. Will bringing the case bring long-term political damage?
If yes, go to #8 ; If no, go to #4
4. Will winning the case bring positive recognition to the agency?
If yes, go to #5 ; If no, go to #8 .
5. Is the the injured party a sympathetic victim?
If yes, go to #6; If no, go to #8
6. LITIGATE
7. Can an investigation develop evidence simple enough for the average 4th grader to understand?
If yes, go to #2 ; If no, go to #3.
8. Do Not Litigate
The law in governmental agencies is far more about "wins and losses" than advancing justice ... Because it is your win/loss record that gets you the Directorship.
romantico
(5,062 posts)I've been wondering the same thing. All these reports are not new. I heard them going on in 2010 and wonder if this is how the GOP won the house. My question then and now is this. WHAT ARE THE DEMOCRATS DOING ABOUT THIS?! DON'T THEY CARE? ARE THEY GOING TO TAKE NOTICE IN OCTOBER? DECEMBER? HELLO?
It is SO FRUSTRATING watching these Republicans do this while NO ONE does anything. Those in power act as if they can't be bothered.
Sugarcoated
(7,736 posts)because they'e gotten away with it many times before. It's gotta stop, reporters must do their jobs.
DLevine
(1,788 posts)IDemo
(16,926 posts)WTF?
romantico
(5,062 posts)I would think someone in Obama's camp would have been on this months ago. I mean, look at all the money they are spending on Obama. For what? ROmney is outspending Obama on this campaign and I just wonder if the Democrats are going to just sit back and let him do it. Seriously. What else am I to think? This whole story has just got me pissed off and depressed. France or England is looking good to me at this point.
olegramps
(8,200 posts)How can states run by Republicans use their power to disenfranchise voters without any challenge by this administration? I am genuinely concerned in regard to how these actions can take place after the JIm Crow obstructions were declared illegal. Can they do this without serious legal objections? I hope someone can explain it. I had a call today from the Democratic Party here asking for donations and I asked him why there has been no action and he was unable to tell anything and just keep going back to what appeared to be a prepared script.
ananda
(28,891 posts)Where's the DOJ?
And where are the marches and sit-ins?
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,509 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,099 posts)We are barely even hearing about the purge, let alone anything that may or may not be getting done about it by the Justice Department.
spanone
(135,919 posts)republicons are about exclusion of voters
lookingfortruth
(263 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)FL, like many states, doesn't have provisions for recalling a governor? This fascist deserves it even more than Scott Walker does.
Why is nothing being done about this???
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)Florida aisle."
There are times when I wish Obama were Dwight Eisenhower and this is one. Send in the 101st Airborne to protect the franchise against Scott.
Oh, wait, there has to be a Supreme Court decision before Obama can order troops in.
Never mind.
Ilsa
(61,710 posts)What is stopping him from stopping this?
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)certainly has the power to launch an investigation into same. An investigation is especially warranted since it appears that some Floridians' voting rights are being violated cavalierly and routinely by the Scott Junta.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Blue Owl
(50,547 posts)If there was any justice, your ass would be in the klink for what you're doing.
PatSeg
(47,711 posts)ineligible voters can't cast a ballot." Really? Yeah, all those non-citizens out there who are going to go out of their way to vote because..............sorry, I can't see the motivation. I've known quite a few people who were "undocumented" and the last place they were going to go was a polling place. Even if they were political (which they weren't), they wouldn't have gone someplace where their presence would have been subject to scrutiny.
Of course, we know they have no evidence that "ineligible voters" were trying to cast a ballot, but it could happen any day now. We must conscientiously stop improbable crimes before they happen.
Miami has been notorious for ineligible voters - all of them Cubans voting Republican in city elections mostly. They were quite organized about it. I haven't heard anything recently about it though.
The two people mentioned above, the WWII vet and the lady from Ohio - interestingly, I think both their names sound Italian, not Hispanic.
My last name sounds English, although it is really Polish, so I doubt I'll get one of these letters. The District I live in might get me one though - it is very Democratic.
PatSeg
(47,711 posts)My experiences were primarily in the Chicago area so it was a different demographic and an organized political effort would have been unlikely. I can see how things would have been quite different in Miami, though I don't think Governor Scott would be concerned about those voters.
I would think they may have used a computer program to find names that might sound Hispanic. My married name is Italian and its possible it might be mistaken for Hispanic by a computer.
I can't even imagine what it must be like to get a letter like that.
thucythucy
(8,109 posts)to determine if you're an eligible voter?
What if you don't own a car?
What if you're a person with a disability, and don't even have a license?
krobar659
(35 posts)Since Rush has moved to Florida, is there anyway we could petition to get his right to vote taken away from him?
caseymoz
(5,763 posts). . . but they can protest. Send 180,000 protesters over to Rick Scott's lawn.
This is being done with a tremendous amount of high-handedness.
ut oh
(904 posts)yet...
wilt the stilt
(4,528 posts)do criminal actions- no conscious
Botany
(70,635 posts).... history of the United States. The man thinks he is above the law and can do whatever
he wants to do. Ineligible voters don't get to vote anyway so this just about trying to
remove as many democrats or democratic leaning voters from being able to vote and having
their votes counted. Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and DBT did this kind of voter purge in Florida
in 1999 and 2000. In Ohio 2004 many black voters were removed from being able to cast
a regular ballot in the November thanx to Karl Rove / Ken Blackwell program.
The DoJ had better get to Florida PDQ and put a stop to this crap.