Yesterday, in a major victory for Florida voters, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that Florida’s 2012 voter purge program targeting suspected non-citizens was in violation of federal law. In a 2-1 decision, the court found that Gov. Rick Scott’s purge was illegal under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which forbids such programs within 90 days of a federal election.
“Eligible voters removed days or weeks before Election Day will likely not be able to correct the State’s errors in time to vote,” Judge Beverly Martin wrote in the majority opinion. “This is why the 90 Day Provision strikes a careful balance: it permits systematic removal programs at any time except for the 90 days before an election because that is when the risk of disfranchising eligible voters is the greatest.”
The victory is the second win for the litigation team, which in 2012 settled a separate discrimination claim in the same case. The initial purge phase, which flagged nearly 2,700 registered Florida voters as alleged non-citizens, disproportionately affected voters of color. More than 82% of the voters who received notice letters were people of color, and many turned out to be eligible citizens.
The appealing plaintiffs in this case included Karla Arcia and Melande Antoine, two Miami citizens wrongly targeted as non-citizens under Florida’s voter purge, and organizational plaintiffs Florida Immigrant Coalition, National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East-Florida. Project Vote is proud to have been part of the legal team on this case, alongside counsel from the Advancement Project, Fair Elections Legal Network, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, SEIU, and attorneys Lorelie Masters, now at Perkins Coie LLP, and Marc Goldman, of Jenner & Block LLP .
Project Vote has committed to enforcing the NVRA, which protects eligible voters from these kinds of irresponsible and illegal voter purges masked as “election integrity” programs. This decision sends a clear signal to election officials that real election integrity means making sure that legitimate voters are not wrongfully removed from the rolls.
We congratulate our partners on this important victory, and we hope this case will help encourage election officials from implementing these sorts of dangerous, last minute purges in the future.