The Scott administration disagrees with the federal Department of Justice’s interpretation of elections law, saying the state’s efforts to clear its voter rolls of noncitizens are not only legal but necessary to ensure eligible voters’ choices aren’t diluted.
In a letter Wednesday to the department, Secretary of State Ken Detzner defended the state’s voter purge effort, echoing Gov. Rick Scott’s assertion that it wouldn’t disenfranchise any legal voters and that the only people removed would be those who truly are ineligible to vote.
Detzner also turned the allegations of illegality back on the Obama administration, arguing it has improperly denied Florida access to a key federal database that would help the state root out ineligible voters.
Civil rights groups and Democrats have criticized the state’s purge effort as too broad-brushed and have raised the prospect that it could capture legal voters, who may not respond to a warning from local officials that they are about to be removed from the rolls unless they can prove they’re legal citizens.
That won’t happen, Detzner said.
“Pursuant to Florida law, no person has been or will be removed from the voter rolls without the fundamentals of due process: notice, an opportunity to be heard, and a determination by the county supervisor of elections that a preponderance of the evidence shows the voter is ineligible,” wrote Detzner, a Scott appointee.
The letter, sent to DOJ elections lawyer T. Christian Herren, was in response to one sent by Herren last week to the state.
The Herren letter raised the possibility that Florida could be violating federal voting laws with the purge, primarily by continuing to remove voters less than 90 days before an election.
Herren’s letter also suggested that the state could be violating federal requirements for getting prior approval for major changes in election procedures in certain jurisdictions.