Florida has taken the Obama administration to court to gain access to the Homeland Security database the governor’s office has requested since September.

The state claims it has tried in vain to get DHS's help in finding noncitizens among Florida’s registered voters.

The lawsuit comes as the U.S. Department of Justice reiterated the demand for the state to “immediately cease” the ongoing review of voters. The review violates federal law, being undertaken within 90 days of an election.

In the 89-page lawsuit filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, the Florida Department of State contends that the delay in access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program (SAVE) database has interfered with the state’s ability to “protect the integrity of elections and maintain current and accurate voter registration rolls.”

The state is seeking immediate access to the database, which is a clear sign Florida doesn’t intend to stop searching for noncitizens registered as voters.

Gov. Rick Scott announced the lawsuit while he was appearing on FOX News Monday afternoon.

“So this afternoon we will file a lawsuit, the secretary of state of Florida against the Department of Homeland Security, to give us the database,” Scott said. “We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.”

The Department of Justice has claimed the state’s effort to remove voters may violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act -- requiring federal preclearance before undertaking any changes in Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry counties, which have past experience with minority-voting problems -- and that because of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, time has run out for the review before the 2012 elections.

On Monday, prior to the state filing its lawsuit, the DOJ responded to the state’s contention that the justice agency was “endorsing” the possibly illegal attempt by the Obama administration-backed Department of Homeland Security to keep Florida from accessing a database to assist its efforts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez on Monday called for Florida to “immediately cease this unlawful conduct.” He claims Florida’s request to access the database includes inaccuracies, adding that the SAVE database requires immigration-related identifiers and documentation, which the state hasn’t confirmed would be available.

“As a result, the significant problems you are encountering in administering this new program are of your own creation,” Perez stated.

Florida officials have replied that they have been repeatedly asking for use of the database in order to comply with the federal “Motor Voter” law, which requires states to remove ineligible voters from the list of registered voters.

“For nearly a year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet its legal obligation to provide us the information necessary to identify and remove ineligible voters from Florida’s voter rolls,” Secretary of State Ken Detzner stated in a release on Monday.

“We can’t let the federal government delay our efforts to uphold the integrity of Florida elections any longer. We’ve filed a lawsuit to ensure the law is carried out and we are able to meet our obligation to keep the voter rolls accurate and current.”

Named as defendants are Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, and their agencies.

On Friday, Detzner said the state would continue the review.

The state’s lawsuit comes after the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the state.

The ACLU filed its lawsuit in federal court in Tampa on behalf of two of the 2,600 names sent by the state to county supervisors to check -- Murat Limage, a Haitian-American U.S. citizen, and Pamela Gomez, a Dominican-American Hispanic U.S. citizen.

ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon claimed Gov. Rick Scott and Detzner were putting "political spin" to hide the intent of removing voters.

"They misled Floridians by calling their illegal-list purge ‘protecting citizens' voting rights'," Simon stated in a release. "This is precisely why Congress has re-enacted, and why we continue to need, the Voting Rights Act -- to prevent state officials from interfering with the constitutional rights of minorities. We now look to the courts to stop the Scott administration from assaulting democracy by denying American citizens the right to vote.”

Because of the growing state-federal feud, the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections on June 1 advised supervisors to put the review on hold.

Detzner on Friday said the process is just beginning and that they believe more people illegally registered have voted.

“We’re not done with the effort,” Detzner said. “We think there are more possible individuals who are registered that have voted, but until we have access to the (Homeland Security) SAVE database, it will be challenging for us to do that.”

The state’s attempt to clean up the voter rolls has drawn sharp rebukes from Democrats and civil rights groups.

House Democratic Leader-designate Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, accused Scott of harassing and intimidating Florida's 67 county elections supervisors.

"Florida's elections supervisors deserve support from statewide officers and they shouldn't have to endure continued meddling and intimidation by the governor,” Thurston stated in a release. "If Governor Scott really wants to improve Florida's elections, he could embrace bipartisan efforts to expand participation of elections instead of harassing elections officials."

Debo Adegbile, NAACP Legal Defense Fund acting president and director-counsel, opined Monday that Florida’s effort is “part of a much wider assault on minority voting rights that extends beyond the state.”

“I can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu watching this go down, especially after the senseless purge before the contested 2000 presidential election,” Adegbile wrote, harking back to 12 years ago. “More than 1,000 eligible voters were improperly stricken from the rolls and couldn't vote in the election. A disproportionate number of those affected were minorities, and most importantly, then as now, Florida knew that its purge list was flawed and likely, if not guaranteed, to ensnare eligible voters.

“In testimony in a purge case that followed the 2000 election, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund learned that the company that prepared the purge list for Florida advised that the voter name 'match criteria' were overly broad and would capture eligible voters. The state ignored this warning.

“This time around, Florida's local elections supervisors raised the red flag about the unreliability of the purge list, but again Florida chose to forge ahead.”

Scott had mentioned the possibility of a lawsuit while attending a tea party rally Sunday in Tallahassee.

On Monday, while at the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach in Boca Raton, Scott accused President Obama‘s administration of “stalling” by not releasing the SAVE database, the Palm Beach Post reported.

“Look, the debate’s over. We clearly have proof that citizens that don’t have the right to vote, noncitizens, are voting in our elections,” the Post quoted Scott as saying.

“As your governor, I have an obligation to enforce the law and I intend to do that. I expect Homeland Security to stop stalling. The Obama administration is stalling about giving us this database. This is the database that we should have. I look forward to them giving us the database so we can make sure that our elections are fair and honest and only individuals who have the right to vote are voting in our elections.”

On Friday, Scott said the voter review effort is standing up for the citizens of Florida.

“You don’t want your vote diluted by people who don’t have a right to vote,” Scott said Friday during an interview with 92.5 FM FOX in Fort Myers.

“I’m going to stand up for the rights of citizens of Florida,” he added.

“I’m going to continue to demand Homeland Security give us the database. When we find criminal evidence that somebody does not have a right to vote, I’m going to give it to the supervisors of elections. It’s their job. They’re independent; it’s their job to make sure the voting rolls are accurate.”

The state has identified more than 182,000 people as potentially being noncitizens among the list of registered voters using the state’s Division of Highway Safety records.

From that list, 2,600 names have been sent to county supervisors to contact. A person may be removed from the list, at the discretion of a county supervisor, if he or she doesn't respond within 30 days.

At least one individual in the Tampa area is being investigated for having voted in 2006 while not a U.S. citizen.  

The Post reports that 86 people have been removed from the lists by county elections supervisors; 46 of them have voted in previous elections.

Detzner said the state is working “slowly” through the entire list of 182,000.

State officials have acknowledged that while the Highway Safety records list an individual's citizenship status at the time they get a license, the records aren’t automatically updated the moment a person earns citizenship.



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