Category Archives: News

Florida officials will not release list of non-citizens on voter rolls

Posted on by

In early May, Florida officials suggested that as many as 180,000 potential non-citizens could be on the state’s voter rolls.

The estimate gained publicity for Gov. Rick Scott’s effort to eliminate illegally registered voters, but the list was thereafter slimmed to 2,700 and made public.

The list of 2,700 later turned up many false positives, with frustrated voters wondering why they were targeted. More than 100 on the list were, however, non-citizens, according to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner.

But with the list’s accuracy questioned, the larger list of 180,000 has not been released, despite repeated public records requests from news organizations.

Courtney Heidelberg, communications director at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV), said in an email that the Department of State submitted to them a list of voters, her agency provided the citizenship status for each and sent the matched list of 180,000 back to the Department of State.

But the department will not release it, and the state attorney general’s office does not have a copy, nor does the governor’s office. And the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the original custodian of records, will not release it.

“Please be advised that DHSMV is not authorized to release information protected by the Driver Privacy Protection Act,” Heidelberg said.

Chris Cate, spokesman for Detzner, said his agency is still reviewing the 180,000 names and will make them available if he and other officials deem it a public record.

By Ethan Magoc, News21

Florida prepares for fewer early voting hours

Posted on by

Florida’s early, in-person voting period will almost certainly shrink this fall. Prior to 2011, when the Republican Legislature altered state voting laws, county election officials were required to allow early voting for a minimum 14 days, which totaled 96 hours, including limited weekend hours.

Beginning this year counties have the option of matching those 96 hours, but the Legislature lowered the minimum requirement to eight days. The law, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, a Republican from Ocala, Fla., also eliminated voting on the Sunday before the election. African-American churches traditionally reserved that day for “Souls to the Polls” campaigns.

In his first interview since the end of litigation over the law, Baxley said that eliminating the Sunday hours was all about timing.
“It seems like we had too tight a squeeze there (before Tuesday),” he said. “You had to count the early votes and be all set up in the counties for a general election in two days.”

His rationale does not sit well with Rodney Long, a retired Democratic politician in northern Florida’s Alachua County.

“If you tell me that there’s a problem with that Sunday, there should be some evidence. There’s 67 people in Florida who could provide it. (Lawmakers) did not receive any testimony from the 67 county officials about Sunday processing. Everyone’s voting electronically – no more chads, no delays,” Long said.

Long’s Gainesville-based group, the African American Accountability Alliance, will work with church and political leaders to mobilize early voting for alternative days, he said.

By Ethan Magoc, News21

Thursday Throwback: Obama supports felon voting rights

Posted on by

Felon disenfranchisement briefly landed in the spotlight two years ago when an adviser for President Barack Obama spoke on his behalf after the 2010 State of the Union.

Heather Higgenbottom, then deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, urged full support of voting rights for former felons and said the president’s position is that when a person completes a sentence, voting rights should be restored.

View the video here, about 16 minutes into the discussion.

Thursday Throwback: Obama supports felon voting rights

By Maryann Batlle, News21

A quick glance at U.S. voting patterns

Posted on by

Members of the News21 team are compiling data from the U.S. Census and academic studies to better distinguish voting patterns.

Here is a sneak peek at what they’ve been working on:

• In the 2010 election, the state with the lowest percentage of voting-age registered people was Hawaii, with 48.3 percent. However, Texas was the worst state for registered voter turnout, with 31.4 percent.

• Maine topped all states two years ago and was first in registered voters and turnout in the 2010 election. Nearly three-quarters of those eligible in Maine are registered, and 58 percent voted.

• A 2006 Pew Center survey on who votes highlighted different categories of people likely to register and vote.

1) Conservatives are more likely to be registered and vote regularly, while liberals are less likely to register.

2) Married people vote more frequently than non-married people.

3) Nearly 25 percent of people who moved to a new neighborhood within a year are not registered to vote, and only three percent of them regularly vote.

4) Persons 50 to 64 years old vote most regularly.

By Alia Conley, News21


Lawsuit claims Florida voter removal violates federal law

Posted on by

A coalition of voting rights groups has sued Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, arguing that state efforts to remove voters from rolls violates the National Voter Registration Act.

The suit — filed June 19 by the Advancement Project, Fair Elections Legal Network, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and Project Vote — is one of several that have emerged since Florida Gov. Rick Scott launched an effort to remove non-citizens from voting rolls earlier this year.

Kathy Culliton-Gonzalez of the Advancement Project traces the voter purge, she said, to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch and True the Vote, which trains volunteers to watch polls, sued Indiana elections officials June 11, alleging that the state is not maintaining accurate voter rolls. Judicial Watch maintains a list of up to a dozen states, including Florida, that the organization plans to sue for the same reasons, president Tom Fitton said.

Florida is taking “reasonable steps” to do things right, Fitton said, and emphasized that any eligible voter who gets accidentally removed can vote provisionally. Any suggestion that Judicial Watch or True the Vote is participating in a nationwide effort to suppress minority or Democratic votes is ridiculous, Fitton said.

By AJ Vicens, News21

Texas: A quick look at the Hispanic population

Posted on by

A history of discrimination toward African Americans in Texas prompted the federal government in 1975 to add the state to those whose election laws are monitored. Now the prospect of a new voter ID law in Texas has the U.S. Department of Justice focusing on the Hispanic population there.

In Texas, 38 percent of the population is Hispanic, according to the 2010 Census, compared to 11.8 percent African Americans. In Webb County, just north of the Mexican border near Laredo, 96 percent of county is Hispanic, the largest Hispanic population for a U.S. county.

Members of the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project contend that the voter ID law would disenfranchise members of this growing minority who are unable to obtain the necessary documents to obtain a government-issued photo ID. Texas Republican state senators who support the proposal reject that assertion.

Take a look at the percent of Hispanic residents in Texas’s 10 most populous counties, according to the most recent Census:

 

Texas: A quick look at the Hispanic population

By Annelise Russell, News21

Texas: Voter registration
by the numbers

Posted on by

Within three weeks, the U.S. District Court is scheduled to hear testimony in Washington, D.C., from the Department of Justice and Texas in the state’s appeal for federal approval of its voter ID law.

Texas officials assert that the law, which would require a photo ID at the polls, does not deny persons the right to vote. Opponents of the ID requirement, such as the Mexican American Legal Education and Defense Fund and the NAACP, argue that the law has the potential to disenfranchise thousands of low-income, elderly, student and minority voters.

Texas is the second-most populous state after California, and has almost 7.5 million registered voters in just the 10 counties with the highest number of registered voters.

How many people is that?  That’s more than 13 times the entire population of Wyoming, according to Census data.

Take a look at the 10 Texas counties with the highest number of registered voters:

Texas: Voter registration <br>by the numbers

Source: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

 

By Annelise Russell, News21

Arizona appeal to Supreme Court
to continue citizenship requirement

Posted on by

Arizona asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday for permission to continue requiring proof of citizenship from those who seek to register to vote. State officials asked this as Arizona prepares to appeal an April ruling that eliminated the requirement from the state’s voter-ID law.

Solicitor General Dave Cole said that the proof-of-citizenship requirement should stay in place for the November election.

Arizona law directed county officials to reject any registration document not accompanied by proof of citizenship. But a 1993 federal law requires only a sworn statement of citizenship on federal registration forms. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in April found that Arizona’s law conflicted with federal law, and struck the citizenship requirement. The state plans to appeal to the Supreme Court by its July 16 deadline.

“The basic issue is the extent to which the federal and state forms conflict, and the extent to which the federal government can say, ‘Look, we have full authority to do this and the states can’t do anything,’” Cole said.

By Jack Fitzpatrick, News21

Maine primary showcases race for U.S. Senate seat vacated by Snowe

Posted on by

The race for the U.S. Senate highlights Maine’s primary today, but the presumed frontrunner is not even on the ballot.

Voters are choosing among four Democratic candidates and six Republican candidates, all vying to face former Gov. Angus King, an independent who does not face a primary challenge. King is seen by many as the favorite because of the weaknesses of the major parties.

In 2010, Democrats lost both houses of the Maine legislature and the governor’s office, but Republicans suffered defeat in a 2011 special election as voters repealed a GOP-backed law that ended election-day voter registration.

That law was sponsored by Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers, one of the leading candidates for the seat from which Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe is retiring.

The Waterville Morning Sentinel reported light voting so far, and that officials had predicted less than 20 percent turnout.

By Alex Remington, News21

Fight over Florida voter rolls leaves county officials in a lurch

Posted on by

The legal wrangle over who should remain on Florida voter rolls has caught counties in the middle of two lawsuits filed this week, said Michael Ertel, Seminole County supervisor of elections.

The Florida Secretary of State has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for access to data that verifies citizenship. On the heels of that suit, the Justice Department  requested a federal injunction Monday to block what it calls voter purging.

“When you have two government entities not working together, this is what causes people to think government is inefficient,” Ertel said. “Politics gets in the way of a lot of this.”

Vicki Davis, Martin County supervisor of elections, said none of the 67 counties will move forward with the purge until the legal disputes are settled.

At the county level, she said, the focus is on conducting a problem-free Aug. 14 primary.

By Ethan Magoc, News21