The state will soon begin forwarding the names of suspected non-citizens on the voter rolls to local elections officials, formally kicking off the second version of Gov. Rick Scott’s controversial scrubbing program, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said Tuesday. “We’ll start shortly after the first of the year, on a case-by-case basis, reviewing files and then forwarding them down to the supervisors,” Detzner said after an event closing out the state’s recognition of the 500th anniversary of Juan Ponce de Leon’s landing in Florida. The state has been working to finalize a procedure for using a federal list to vet registered voters since 2012, when it first struck a deal with the Department of Homeland Security over the use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database. Now, the final steps of putting that process in place are close. Detzner’s office has sent a proposed template for a “memorandum of agreement” to the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, the organization that represents county election chiefs. The organization is expected to respond to the state over the next week or two.
Ron Labasky, general counsel of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, confirmed that the group is reviewing the draft prepared by Detzner’s office.
Once the template is finalized, any county supervisor that signs an agreement would be able to access the SAVE database on their own. That will allow them to essentially double-check the information of a suspected non-citizen against the database in an effort to make sure no eligible voters are removed from the rolls.
“We want them, once they get the list … once they’ve given written notice to individuals, if they need to go into the SAVE database, they’ll also have access to it,” Detzner said.
Full Article: Revamped voting roll scrub soon to begin.