State says 180,000 non-residents could be registered to vote in Florida
State says 180,000 non-residents could be registered to vote in Florida! - ( I added the exclamation mark.)
By Matt Dixon
jacksonville.com
Posted: May 10, 2012 - 7:06pm
TALLAHASSEE | An estimated 180,000 non-U.S. residents are registered to vote in Florida, according to state records. It’s a tightly held secret not shared with county election officials or the state’s election chief even after he took the job.
The large number of non-residents potentially on state voter rolls was first identified in early 2011, when the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles turned over residency information to the Department of State.
Using a 1.4 million voter sample, the state estimated at the time that there were “almost 900,000 voters that may or may not be U.S. citizens” in Florida according to documents obtained by the Times-Union. Verification of citizenship has whittled that number to the current 180,000.
The group, termed “immigrants,” is comprised of people who are in the United States legally on a permanent basis. A separate group of roughly 2,600 “non-immigrants” — people here legally on a temporary basis — also may be registered.
State estimates show 3,600 immigrant voters in Duval County. That number is “less than 500” in Clay County, said Clay County Supervisor of Election Chris Chambliss.
So, how did so many non-residents register to vote?
“From my understanding, it can happen when people go to get driver’s license,” said Duval Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.
Courtney Heidelberg, a Motor Vehicles spokeswoman, said if a person is not a resident, there should be no option to register.
“A possible explanation would be they could have registered prior to when the department began to collect citizenship information and haven’t renewed or visited us since then,” she said.
She said her department’s role in the process was simply turning residency information over the Department of State. People can also register at place like a supervisor of elections office, the Division of Elections, by mail, or at a public library.
Holland says that the non-residents probably have influenced elections.
“We have had one statewide election, and around 50 or 60 municipal elections since they have known,” he said.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner rolled out a plan Wednesday to “identify non-citizens who are currently on Florida’s voter rolls.”
A news release said the names of the 2,600 non-immigrants were sent to county offices. The release made no mention of the larger list, and the state has not contacted county election officials about that.
Some have unearthed the numbers themselves. Others are still in the dark.
“I have received nothing from the state on the second list,” said St. Johns County Supervisor of Election Vicky Oakes in an email. Her county has five non-immigrants registered.
The state said it wants to do its research first.
“Before contacting supervisors, we wanted to know whether a match process was indeed viable and yielding credible information that the Supervisors of Election could comfortably rely upon,” wrote Department of State spokesman Chris Cate.
The information, documents show, was not even shared with Detzner up to a month after Gov. Rick Scott appointed him in mid-January.
He spoke with State Department attorney Maria Matthews “two weeks ago to ask about this. She’s indicated that she has not yet briefed the new Secretary on this issue,” read a Feb. 22 memo prepared by Boyd Walden, a director with Motor Vehicles.
Scott’s office says it is “comfortable” with the new program.
“The Department of State has recently developed a new tool to match voter records with DHSMV records to make sure we know who should and shouldn’t be voting,” said Lane Smith, a Scott spokesman.
Cate said the state is unsure if all non-resident voters would be removed from voter rolls by November’s election. He said the state has asked for access to a Homeland Security database to help verify immigration status, but “these efforts have so far been unsuccessful.”
Duval County records show seven of the 18 “non-immigrants” identified in Duval County registered to vote while getting a license. The data is not yet available for registered “immigrants.”
Motor Vehicles is “kind of on one side of the fence. They don’t want to be blamed for these guys being registered,” Holland said.
Cate said as they continue to work through the list, the 180,000 number will probably shrink.
“This doesn’t mean we will be sending 180,000 names to supervisors,” he said. “We won’t.”
Matt Dixon: (904) 716-8789
Jacksonville.com: State says 180,000 non-residents could be registered to vote in Florida | jacksonville.com
