Florida's Voter Purge: Federal Government to the Rescue

By Jonathan Gonzalez on June 13, 2012

Political Cartoon by Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press

 

 

In the latest episode of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s attempted purge of Florida voters, the Department of Justice has stepped in and filed a lawsuit against the State (find a copy of the lawsuit and the Department of Justice press release at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/June/12-crt-746.html). The complaint, filed on Tuesday, June 12, 2012, alleges first and foremost that the State of Florida’s presumed illegal voter purge is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act. The NVRA prohibits any voter removal programs within ninety days of a federal election.

The wisdom of this provision should be obvious. If state governments were permitted to revoke voter registration within ninety days of an election, voters might not have sufficient notice to challenge their removal, and they may not be able to resolve their voter registration issues within the court system in time to vote. This could permit a governor of a certain party, for example a Republican governor, to systematically target voters of another party for voter registration removal. This type of purge would seriously impact the credibility of the election, and also violate citizens’ constitutional right to vote.

The lawsuit is correct in its allegations that Governor Scott’s voter purge is in violation of federal law. On those grounds alone, the voter purge should be halted immediately. Governor Scott has argued previously that his assault on Florida voters is within the scope of the law because the voters that he is targeting should never have been registered to vote in the first place. This argument falls to the text of the law. Section 8(c)(2)(A) of the NVRA provides for a number of exceptions to the ninety day removal clause, but Scott’s justification is not among the specified exceptions.

Furthermore, the Department of Justice’s complaint alleges that Governor Scott’s voter purge is in fact removing voters from registration lists when those voters are rightfully and lawfully registered. The lawsuit states that “the database matching processes… rely on outdated and inaccurate data; consequently, the resulting lists have erroneously identified numerous registered voters in Florida who are U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote and who potentially could be deprived of their right to vote.” The lawsuit also contends that those state officials responsible for the execution of the purge were aware, or should have been aware, that the removal lists included errors, and that the lists identified natural born citizens for voter registration removal, including “decorated combat veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces.”

If Governor Scott is allowed to revoke the right of Armed Forces veterans to vote, no one should count themselves safe from his purge. The governor’s actions have already come under scrutiny for targeting the elderly and for targeting voters from the Democratic party, but revoking the rights of a veteran is crossing an entirely new set of lines. Whether our men and women who have served overseas originated from other nations and were nationalized as citizens, or whether their parents were foreign born citizens, an element of respect for their service is to be expected, and Governor Scott has violated that respect.

No less important for consideration are those voters who were naturalized in this country as citizens, or those who have acquired birthright citizenship. Naturalized citizens are people who have come to this country in the hope of finding a better life. They have worked among and with American citizens. They have contributed to their neighbor’s lives and our nations economy. They shop in local stores, engage local professionals for their services and pay taxes to the government. Those who have been naturalized have just as much right to vote as any other citizen. The same is true for those who have attained birthright citizenship. Even if their parents are foreign either legally or illegally, people with birthright citizenship are for all intents and purposes Americans. They have been raised as Americans, have attended American schools, been naturalized as American citizens and many even speak English as a first language. There is no reason or purpose why those individuals should be denied the right to vote aside from an antiquated and prejudiced bias.

Should the allegations contained in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit be proven true and correct, the purge will be halted immediately by a court order and it will only continue once steps are taken to ensure that any purge is conducted correctly and in good faith within the confines of the law. This relief may not come soon enough; however, as legal matters of this kind take a significant amount of time. Governor Scott continues to contend that his voter purge is within the limits of the United States Constitution and federal law, and he will more than certainly endeavor fight this lawsuit at every turn. If this is the case, the State of Florida may not see relief before the upcoming Congressional primary elections.

Florida has been at the center of a number of election controversies since the 2000 election of President George W. Bush, but this is the most egregious instance of unlawful electioneering yet. Hopefully the federal government is able to halt the voter purge, and those voters that Governor Scott has been attempting to remove will be allowed to protest with their votes when the governor next comes before the people of Florida for re-election.

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