Opinion
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TBO.com
Published: June 6, 2012
Florida has, roughly, 4.1 million registered Republicans and 4.6 million registered Democrats. Nevertheless, both chambers of the Legislature have solid GOP majorities, and Democrats have lost the last four gubernatorial elections. To some this is prima facie evidence that Republicans have been systematically barring people more likely to vote for Democrats — primarily minorities — from the polls. Other possible explanations for this electoral-outcome paradox include: a) some people who are registered Democrats vote Republican; and b) some registered Democrats, of their own free will, don't vote.Published: June 6, 2012
The U.S. Justice Department believes the sinister explanation. Last week, Justice ordered the Florida Division of Elections to halt its efforts to purge noncitizens from the state's voter rolls.
Florida election officials, concerned about the accuracy of the state citizenship data with which they were working, double-checked and winnowed a list of 180,000 registered Florida voters with uncertain citizenship status to 2,700, according to The Miami Herald. They then asked county election officials to contact these questioned voters by mail and give them two months to confirm their citizenship or face being removed from the voter rolls. Despite this seeming caution, the 2,700-person list had U.S. citizens on it, according to the Herald.
State election officials say the Department of Homeland Security has ignored requests for DHS citizenship data to help identify noncitizens on voter rolls. This is a case in which state-federal cooperation would be a good thing.