Florida election officials are ready to renew their effort to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls now that the federal government has granted access to a Homeland Security database. But some Democratic lawmakers question the merits of the so-called “voter purge” after last year’s controversial attempt flagged about 180,000 eligible voters for removal.
On Monday, Secretary of State Ken Detzner made the latest in a series of presentations about the new non-citizen removal effort nicknamed Project Integrity.
“This is a very sensitive issue to many of your constituents, and I want to assure you that we do this with the very utmost respect for everybody that we have to—that we come in contact with," Detzner told the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.
Detzner says the process will be handled on a case-by-case basis with a complex series of database checks, double checks, investigation reviews and opportunities for flagged voters to prove they're citizens.
But the explanation did not keep Sen. Darren Soto (D-Kissimmee) from expressing doubts during his questioning of Elections Division Director Maria Matthews.
“During the last purge, we had an initial list of 180,000 people, and ultimately 85 of them were deemed ineligible voters. What’s the difference between the last purge and this one?" he asked.
Matthews responded, “I personally don’t like the term ‘purge.’ So, list maintenance was what we were doing. We were involved with making the rolls current and accurate.”
Matthews says the big difference this year is the state’s access to a Homeland Security citizenship database called SAVE. It'll be used as a cross-check when state driver’s license records suggest someone might be a noncitizen. Last year’s effort relied on drivers’ records alone.
"What we did not realize was how important that key access is to SAVE," she said. "And once we did, that’s when we fought hard— long and hard to get access to SAVE.”
Matthews concedes SAVE is sometimes not updated right away when someone becomes a citizen, and for that reason, the state will also monitor naturalization ceremonies.
She says once someone is given notice that SAVE indicates he or she isn't a citizen, that person will have 30 days to respond to a local elections office. The ultimate decision to remove someone for any reason lies with each of the state’s 67 county election supervisors.
