CBS-12/WPEC-TV
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The fight continues for voting rights groups to stop Governor Rick Scott from purging Florida’s voter rolls of alleged non-U.S. citizens. Letters have already been mailed out to 2,600 Florida residents informing them they may be ineligible to vote.
They’re appealing to election supervisors not to carry out the governor’s plan because the data being used to generate those lists is full of mistakes. Voting rights groups say if Governor Scott doesn’t cease the operation, they may have no choice but to use legal action.
Voting rights groups say they’re outraged — a South Florida World War Two veteran receiving a letter that he’s suspected of not being a U.S. citizen and he may not be eligible to vote.
Bill Internicola: I was amazed when I got the letter. I’ve been voting since I was 18-years-old.
That’s exactly what happened to lifelong democrat Bill Internicola earlier this month, and it’s happening to hundreds of people across the state. All after Governor Rick Scott instructed Florida’s election’s supervisors to purge the the state’s voting rolls.
Katherine Flanagan/Project Vote: It’s illegal to conduct this type of systemic purge so close to a federal election.
Project Vote is one of five organizations that warned Florida last last week to discontinue it’s plan to purge alleged non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls. Those groups also called on the Department of Justice to temporarily halt the purge and investigate the state’s actions.
Katherine Flanagan/Project Vote: The state should be using its resources to make voting more convenient and accessible. It shouldn’t be creating obstacles to people exercising their right to vote.
Governor Scott’s office insists the state’s effort is a vetting process to make sure non-citizens aren’t able to vote in the upcoming presidential election. But voting rights advocates say history is repeating itself 12 years after thousands of legally registered voters were disenfranchised.
Katherine Flanagan/Project Vote: I think the 2000 removal actions gave Florida a black-eye because it erroneously removed eligible citizens.
The American Civil Liberties Union says they’re very concerned about this process and are looking at the situation very closely. Voters rights groups say they’re prepared to put the challenge in front of federal court.
Read more at CBS 12.