Politics

Ken Detzner: No One Has Been Denied a Right to Vote

By: Jim Turner | Posted: June 1, 2012 6:00 PM

Around the State

Secretary of State Ken Detzner

Secretary of State Ken Detzner defended efforts to remove noncitizens from the lists of Florida registered voters in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice questioning the legality of the process.

“As Florida’s chief elections officer, I am committed to ensuring the accuracy of Florida’s voter rolls and the integrity of our elections. It is my duty to protect the right of all eligible voters who are able to participate in the process,” Detzner stated in a release Friday.

“This is the security that voters and candidates expect from us in every election. The department will continue to act in a responsible and cautious manner when presented with credible information about potentially ineligible voters. No one who has the right to vote has been denied the opportunity to cast a vote, and as the secretary, it is my duty to ensure that remains the case."

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

Herren’s letter prompted the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections on Friday to advise supervisors today to put the review on hold.

Herren claims the effort may violate both 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 the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.

The voting registration act requires such reviews to be conducted more than 90 days prior to an election, in Herren’s opinion. With the primary set for Aug. 14, the voter registration reviews should have ended May 16.

Detzner said that the state will respond to Herren’s concerns next week.

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

Tags: 1965 Voting Rights Act, 1993 National Voter Registration Act, Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, Ken Detzner, News, U.S. Department of Justice, Politics

Comments (11)

Maria Adele Mueller

12:21PM AUG 15TH 2012

How many potentially questionable voters names are being held up by the Secretary of State and are not being investigated by local Supervisors of Elections in the duly mandated manner, which takes at best about 60 days? I have heard that about 170,000 need scrutiny. I don't want my vote diluted by even one erroneously registered person.

Maria Adele Mueller

12:24PM AUG 15TH 2012

Where can I go to get an answer to my question?

Frank

9:37PM JUN 4TH 2012

So now that the Governor has indicated he won't comply with the DOJ, how long until he starts replacing elected election supervisors with his own minions to carry on the voter purge, any bets?

Of course, the other option threatened in 2000 by Republicans was to totally bypass the people and have the Legislature directly decide the electors for the President, regardless of the people's vote.

Frank

8:06PM JUN 3RD 2012

You know, if Ken Detzner and the Governor would spend 1/10 the funds and energy they're putting into this voter suppression effort to ferret out real voting issues, like the looming problems with the Election Systems & Software's DS200 scanner system they previously approved, we'd all be much better off during the upcoming 2012 election.

Nothing like having half the state's votes being tallied by a suspect system.

fcthompson

9:50AM JUN 3RD 2012

And when there are multiples of thousands (into the hundreds of thousands) of non citizens on the voting rolls (predominantly democrat) no wonder the dems scream to keep them on. Their base is made up of this kind of fraud.

Our Secretary of State is correct, in his statement, that no one is being denied their right to vote. Non citizens do not possess that right in the first place and I have yet to hear a single member from the 'left' admit that.

Frank

10:30AM JUN 3RD 2012

Yes, no citizen is every denied their legal right to vote - except, as example, the 8,000 legal voters who were denied their legal vote in the 2000 election.

And how many cases of voter fraud each year - less than the number of shark attacks (10-15).

Maybe a remedial math class would help you to understand which of the established numbers is larger.

Oh, and as to your "non citizen" claim, just because you (or the Florida Secretary of State) claim that doesn't make it truthful. Seems like the current effort has only come up with three names so far that are proven to be problematic. Meanwhile, there are demonstrated to be hundreds of legitimate voters on the initial list sent out.

Again, perhaps a remedial math class may help you to recognize that hundreds is a much larger number than three.

Perhaps that's why DOJ has told Florida cease and desist, and why the former Secretary of State refused to send the list out.

fcthompson

11:43AM JUN 3RD 2012

This is getting too easy to identify the agenda of the left. As I said, no member of 'such left' will admit that they want the non citizens off the voting rolls or any other illegal voter, for that matter because illegal voters are a part of the base of the dems. In your reply, I saw no such admission. The DOJ told Florida to cease because the DOJ is part of the dems machinery to keep as many illegal voters on the rolls as they can.

Folks whose intent is voter fraud do not want the illegal voters purged.

Frank

7:52PM JUN 3RD 2012

I have no problem purging illegal voters, but do it legally and timely WITHOUT TRYING TO REMOVE LEGAL VOTERS and not in an attempt to disenfranchise voters primarily from one party.

The current purging effort both removes legal voters through switching the burden of proof and violates federal laws in the timing and manner in which it's being carried out, as I've previously warned multiple times.

To the current Secretary of State, it appears that if you're a 91 years old WWII vet or don't happen to have a current driver's license, then you must by his definition not be an American citizen. After all, don't all real Americans drive cars.

You and I will never agree on the legally and reasons behind DOJ's cease and desist letter, but then I'm not the one who continues to proclaim elsewhere that Obama is not a legal citizen and was put into the Presidency only by the votes of illegal voters.

I'm not the one with wacky Mad Hatter Tea Party birther conspiracy beliefs. I'm not the one who would have voter fraud committed by denying legal Americans the right to vote, or their ability to be elected President.

Pat Galbraith

7:14AM JUN 2ND 2012

From the reports, the are 182,000 questionable registrations in Florida. I hope none are fraudulent - this is a felony. I hope all are clerical errors - like failure to report change of address or some such.

But, even if i%, 1820, are in error, we have a problem. We are going to have a very close election in November. I think many will remember the Dade, Broward, Palm Beach 2000 fiasco. The final count was less than a 600 vote difference. That's less than 1/3 of 1% of that 182,000.

I have been called many things, including racist, because I support positive voter ID AND proof of citizenship when registering to vote. But one thing I will never support. Armed poll watchers a la' Philadelphia. Thank you Secretary Holder.

Frank

10:15AM JUN 2ND 2012

Yes, when you start talking about the approximately 600 vote differential, be sure and point out the 8,000 legal voters (58% African American, typically Democratic voters) how were illegally removed from the Florida voter rolls based on a flawed similar such list shortly before the 2000 election.

That was fraud on legal voters in 2000. Thanks to DOJ, this year's eerily similar disenfranchisement effort in Florida appears to be on hold.

Frank

7:01PM JUN 1ST 2012

"Ken Detzner: No One Has Been Denied a Right to Vote" - translation: there's been no vote held since we've started purging what are undoubtably Democratic voters, just like my predecessor did in 2000, so we can claim no one has been denied a right to vote.

note: Katherine Harris successfully purged 8,000 legal voters just before the 2000 election, mostly African-American who WERE denied their legal right to vote.

This IS all about voter suppression.