Florida leaders are firm that they are doing the “right thing” in asking supervisors of elections to clear noncitizens from the list of registered voters, even as the U.S. Department of Justice is questioning the legality of the process.

"With a single phone call, President Obama could have the data from (a Department of Homeland Security database) immediately released to the states," bristled RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry in a written statement Thursday.

The DOJ letter and the state’s stance have caused the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections to advise supervisors today to put the review on hold.

“We need to discontinue working the possible ineligible list of non-U.S. citizens until the Department of Justice and Department of State have fully vetted the issue,” said Vicki Davis, Martin County supervisor of elections and president of the supervisors' association.

Davis noted she has received a number of calls from residents asking her to halt the review. Martin County was sent two names to check from the state, both residents who have come from Canada.

Davis was able to reach one of the individuals, who provided a passport to show citizenship. The other will remain on the books for now. 

“We’re erring on the side of voters, and that’s the position that supervisors throughout the state are taking,” Davis said.

Late Thursday, Christian Herren, the department’s chief civil rights lawyer, gave Secretary of State Ken Detzner until June 6 to halt the voter roll review that has drawn sharp opposition from Democrats and minority groups.

Secretary of state spokesman Chris Cate responded in an email Friday morning that the state hasn’t thoroughly reviewed Herren’s letter, but defended the ongoing review.

“Bottom line is, we are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot,” Cate wrote.

Herren claims the effort may violate both the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires such voter registration reviews to be completed 90 days prior to an election.

“Specifically, please advise whether the state intends to cease the practice discussed above, so that the department can determine what further action, if any, is necessary,” Herren wrote in a two-page letter.

Herren points to the state’s need to receive federal preclearance before undertaking any changes in Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry counties, which are governed by the Voting Rights Act due to past minority-voting problems.

"Our records do not reflect that these changes affecting voting have been submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for judicial review or to the attorney general for administrative review, as required by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act," Herren wrote.

As for the National Voter Registration Act, the Aug. 14 primary should have required the state’s review to end May 16, in Herren’s opinion.

On Thursday, prior to Herren’s letter, the state continued to press the Department of Homeland Security to open its database to Florida to provide more updated citizenship information.

“We provided information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security yesterday, and have been doing so for nearly nine months, in hopes that the federal government would help us identify ineligible voters,” Cate wrote.

“While this isn’t a response from DHS as to why they haven’t provided us access to their data, at least we know the federal government knows we take ineligible voters on the voter rolls seriously. We hope the federal government will recognize the importance of accurate voter rolls and support our efforts.”

The state has been using Division of Highway Safety records, which list an individual's citizenship status at the time he or she gets a license. However, the records aren’t automatically updated the moment a person earns citizenship.

Because of the delay, the supervisors of elections in Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties were the first to decide that they would no longer use the state’s list of potentially ineligible voters. 

The Fair Election Legal Network, one of five civil and voting rights groups opposed to the state's review, called on Detzner to suspend the program and restore the rights of anyone removed from the lists.

"FELN is pleased that the Department of Justice agrees with our interpretation of the NVRA that requires any systematic program to remove ineligible voters from the rolls to be completed within 90 days of a federal election," Robert Brandon, FELN president, stated in a release.

"Already, there have been several instances of voters incorrectly flagged as ineligible to vote through their faulty data-matching program using outdated and error-prone data from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles' (DHSMV') database and jury recusal forms."

The Republican Party of Florida shot back in defense of Detzner, arguing that “In recent days, Democrats and liberal special interests have spent a lot of time attacking Florida's solution to the real problem of illegally-registered voters.”

In the Thursday morning statement from RPOF Chairman Curry, the party also backed efforts to have President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security open the database in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.

“... I ask all Floridians who care about the integrity of our elections to contact the White House immediately. Tell the president we need to stop illegal voters and need the SAVE data released today.

"We have a duty to ensure the integrity of each vote and that means no illegal voters on our voter rolls," Curry said. "Any amount of fraud is too much, and taking proactive steps to prevent it makes sense."



Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.