Scott administration refuses to halt voter 'purge'

ALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Rick Scott and his state division of elections Wednesday night defied a call by the Obama administration to halt a voter removal program that has attempted to purge "non-citizens" from the voter rolls.

"The Department of State respectfully disagrees with DOJ's position," Secretary of State Ken Detzner wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, which last week said the purge violated federal voting laws. "The actions taken by Florida to identify and remove non-citizens from its voter rolls ensures that the right to vote of citizens is protected and is not diluted by the vote of ineligible persons."

Detzner also renewed the state's request, first made last year, for access to a Department of Homeland Security database of citizens and said the feds "may [have] violate[d] federal law" by denying it. And he added that the purge has identified people who "by their own admission" are non-citizens and have no right to vote.

But an attorney for the Florida Association of Supervisors of Election, who last week had urged the state's 67 supervisors to suspend the purge because of the feds' letter, said Wednesday night he was sticking by that recommendation until the dispute is resolved.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-06/news/fl-state-justice-voter-purge-20120606_1_voter-rolls-purge-ron-labasky