Florida Secretary of State Sues Feds Over Voter Purge
TALLAHASSEE
– Secretary of State Ken Detzner and the Florida Department of State
filed a lawsuit on Monday against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
for allegedly failing to meet its statutory obligation to provide access to the
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program (SAVE) database, a
database of information necessary to confirm the status of potential
non-citizens and help ensure the integrity of Florida elections.
"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,” said Secretary Detzner. “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."
In 2011, the Florida Department of State received information from
the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles indicating
that non-citizens may be registered to vote in Florida. However, while
processing the new information, the State of Florida says that it became evident that the Department of
State’s ability to validate a person’s legal status as up-to-date was
limited. In order to validate such information, the department began
seeking access to the SAVE database.
"After nearly a year of requests for access to the SAVE database, the
federal government has shown no signs of meeting their legal requirement
to provide access," said Detzner. "However, federal law expressly requires the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to respond to state inquiries
seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of
any individual within its jurisdiction for any purpose authorized by
law. Additionally, DHS recently stated that the SAVE database could be
used for voter registration purposes in a document published September
21, 2011."
In response, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicated that it will sue the State of Florida in a letter dated June 11, 2012 to Dentzer. "Because that State has indicated its unwillingness to comply with these requirements [federal voting laws], I have authorized the initiation of an enforcement action against Florida in Federal Court," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez.
Both the Florida lawsuit and the Department of Justice letter follow below:
In response, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicated that it will sue the State of Florida in a letter dated June 11, 2012 to Dentzer. "Because that State has indicated its unwillingness to comply with these requirements [federal voting laws], I have authorized the initiation of an enforcement action against Florida in Federal Court," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez.
Both the Florida lawsuit and the Department of Justice letter follow below:
State of Florida v. U.S. DHS Complaint U.S. DOJ Letter To Fla. Secretary of State
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