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Amy SilversteinJune 2, 2012 21:10
Feds order Florida to stop voter purge
The Department of Justice warned Florida to stop its voter purge. Florida officials say they are weighing their options.
The Department of Justice warned Florida to stop its voter purge. Florida officials say they are weighing their options.
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott at the 2011 Governors Summit of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. in June 2011. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Department of Justice has warned Florida to stop its campaign to purge several thousand people from voting. Florida officials say they will decide in the coming days whether or not to obey the Feds' orders, Reuters reported.
The voter purge began in April and is lead by Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott. He has long said that the point of the purge is to prevent non-citizens from voting in the upcoming presidential elections. But critics say the real point of the purge is to target people likely to vote for the other party. Of the 2,600 people that Scott has purged from voting, the majority are Democrats, Independents or Hispanics, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
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The Department of Justice has now stepped in and is accusing Florida of violating federal law, the Associated Press reported. Government officials say that the method Florida is using to identify non-citizens has not been reviewed to make sure that it is fair.
But Florida officials aren't sure if they will comply. "We have a year-round obligation to ensure the integrity of Florida's elections. We will be responding to (the Justice Department's) concerns next week," a spokesman for the Florida Secretary of State told Reuters.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120602/feds-order-florida-stop-voter-purge
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