In a radio interview today on WFLA-FM, Governor Rick Scott of Florida admitted that when he tried to vote in 2006, he found that his name had been removed from the voter rolls.
As the story goes, Scott (before he was governor), was apparently taken off the voter rolls because another Rick Scott (no relation) had passed away earlier that year. It was an identity mix-up. While talking with WFLA host Preston Scott about his current efforts to keep the voter rolls from becoming “diluted” by noncitizen voters, Governor brought up his personal difficulty in the voting booth.
Starting around 7:50 –
“… I had to vote provisionally because they said I had passed away. And so – I said, “Here’s my driver’s license, I’m here,” and you know, “I’m really alive,” and so they allowed me to vote provisionally. And they went back and checked and said, I was alive. And so, we’ve got great due process – we want people that are US citizens to vote, we just don’t want their vote to be diluted by non-U.S. citizens. It’s illegal, it’s a crime.” Scott shared this story in order to help justify his efforts to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls. The distinction here is that Scott was eventually able to vote, albeit provisionally — even though the poll workers could not find his name on the rolls. His name removal was a mistake. The Governor’s current crusade to keep the voter rolls from being “diluted” questions the citizenship of tens of thousands of people, many of whom are eligible voters, then threatens to remove their names from the voter rolls if they do not prove their citizenship. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that most county officials will not comply with the Governor’s voter roll purge. But officials in Lee and Collier counties will remove 25 voters within the next few weeks if the voters do not respond to mail requests and a newspaper notice.
The place for in-depth analysis, commentary and informed perspectives. Recommended
