207 illegal voters stricken from Florida rolls

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has confirmed 207 non-citizens have been on state voter rolls.

The confirmed names will be provided to county election supervisors of elections.

"The Voter Eligibility Initiative is already proving to be a successful process to identify illegally registered voters on Florida's voter rolls," said Secretary of State Ken Detzner. "We want every Florida voter to be confident that their vote is protected and not hurt in any way by the illegal activity of others. We know that every vote counts, especially here in Florida where only 537 votes decided the presidential election in 2000."

Department of State employees recently completed training on how to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program database.

September 13, 2012
Gasparilla Gazette

Those employees have been checking the legal status of 2,625 potential non-citizens whose names were provided to supervisors of elections in April. The department is conducting a matching process with the state driver's license database to identify additional potential non-citizens whose status is to be confirmed.

Names of potential non-citizens will not be sent to election officials without having been reviewed by DOS, checked by the federal SAVE database and verified as noncitizens.

When a supervisor of elections receives information about a potential non-citizen, the statutory notice and removal process begins. Potential non-citizens will be provided an explanation of the basis for their potential ineligibility and can request a hearing to dispute the determination of potential ineligibility.

In response to the department's new process to identify non-citizens on the voter rolls, plaintiffs in the Arcia vs. Detzner case today dismissed three counts in their complaint challenging the process. The only count remaining in the Arcia vs. Detzner case now focuses on the 90-day timeframe.

In a separate lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal judge upheld Florida's right to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls whenever they are identified. The judge said that the state and federal government should work together because illegally registered non-citizens voting constitutes "irreparable harm" to Florida and its voters.