Florida to defy Justice Department

Florida says it will continue to vet the voter registration rolls of non-citizens despite warnings from the Justice Department to cease.

Florida says it will defy a warning by the U.S. Department of Justice to stop purging the voter registration rolls of non-citizens.

A spokesman for Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said they are going to continue forward to do everything that can legally do to make sure ineligible voters cannot vote.

Lenny Curry, the Chairman of Florida’s Republican Party, says some election supervisors have objected to continue vetting the lists.  He says it’s a part of their job to keep going.

“The Republican Party of Florida’s position is we want to make sure that everyone that has the right to vote is registered to vote and casts their ballot on Election Day under the rule of law,” Curry said.

“Anything short of that is voter fraud.”

Jerry Holland, Duval’s Supervisor of Elections, has already vetted the county’s list of eighteen potential non-citizens.  He says the overall process has been taking the state a long time to complete.

Holland says the Justice Department told them it’s illegal to modify voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

“And that is correct by statue,” he said.  “So it’s really a dilemma of when this list went out and where we’re at now.  And the fact that the federal government really held them up on processing the vetting of these particular people.”

Lenny Curry says the most accurate information on immigration is held in the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE Database, which “tracks the immigration process from start to finish.”

“The Obama Administration will not allow states to interface with that data.  If they would allow the state of Florida to interface with that data, we could quickly cross reference our voter rolls with their information and identify those that have the right to vote and those that don’t.  We’d go into election day with a clean list.”

“My guess is they want to politicize this.”

One of the problems in the process, Curry said, was some eligible citizens who were on the list mistakenly got taken off.

“I would think that those individuals would be happy to be a part of a process that ensures that those that vote alongside of them on election day will have the integrity of the system,” Curry said.

Jerry Holland says many of the people who made the potential non-citizens list acquired citizenship over time with help from the Real ID act.

He says some of those people “have not come back in to renew their driver’s license yet because they didn’t want to pay the money just to update it.”

Holland said had one person contact him who is a Sergeant in the Army and has now become a naturalized citizen who can vote.

“And the rest of them have moved or we’re waiting to contact.”