The U.S. Justice Department is moving aggressively against Florida’s voter purge, suing the state today.
The DOJ suit alleges Florida’s search for non-citizen voters, initiated at the request of Republican Gov. Rick Scott, violates a “quiet period” required by federal law during the 90 days before an election.
Florida’s primary is set for August 14.
The suit also contends Florida has been using inaccurate and unreliable voter verification procedures, which also violates federal law.
Here’s the complaint:
FloridaThe lawsuit comes just one day after the state sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over the purge.
Florida wants to check the names of its registered voters against a DHS immigration database to help weed out non-citizens.
Florida has already sent thousands of letters to registered voters across the state, saying they’ve been identified as potential non-citizens. These people must now prove their citizenship or be purged from the voting rolls. But since 2000, there have been only 178 allegations of fraud in the whole state, out of 37 million votes cast. That’s 0.0005%. All 67of Florida’s Democratic, Republican and independent county elections supervisors have joined together to oppose and stop Scott’s attempts to suppress the vote. Republicans want to increase their chances of winning close elections by disenfranchising core Democratic voting blocs such as the poor, the elderly, minorities and the young, just as they did in 2000.
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