Florida Officials Again Seek to Purge Voter Rolls Without Scrutiny

[mrbowler]

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By Jacob Ogles
First published by Wired.com, June 24, 2004

Editor's note: On Monday we chose an article reviewing the extent of disenfranchisement of blacks in the 2000 elections and the partisan impacts as our "editor's pick." Now, the same tactic of aggressively purging potential past felons from voting roles is being used by Jeb Bush's Administration in Florida.
His people certainly will proceed more cautiously than in 2000, but incredibly, state officials are refusing to disclose the list of 47,000 people sert to be purged from voting rolls to the media.

Update: On July 1, 2004, a Florida state court ordered state election officials to release the list.
ORLANDO, FLA -- Florida Department of State officials, in response to a lawsuit by CNN, said nobody is guaranteed the right to a copy of a list of felons who may be purged from voter rolls before the presidential election.

The state is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with CNN and the Florida First Amendment Foundation over public-records requests for the felon list. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, state officials argued that releasing the names of felons would violate the privacy of those on the list.

In an argument against the lawsuit, lawyers for the state wrote that Florida law requires records "be open for personal inspection by any person," but there is no requirement that copies of the records be provided.

It also argued that a broad release of those names would offer no public service, denying CNN's assertion that the list might disenfranchise the 47,000 people whose names are on the list. While the felons have been flagged in the database, state officials argued that none would be purged from rolls unless county supervisors determine through further research that the convictions are valid.

Florida is one of seven states where convicted felons lose their right to vote. Felons may apply to have that right restored once their sentence is served.

Few have been able to obtain a copy of the list of names because of laws regarding voter-registration books. The purge list is considered part of the Central Voter Database, which has statutory exemptions from the state's public-records laws. Anyone can look at the list of names, but only specific political entities such as candidates and political action committees can have a copy, and the copies can only be used for campaign purposes.

The CNN lawsuit was filed after a public-records request for the list was denied in May. The First Amendment Foundation filed a motion of intervention in June, and Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the network.

In its complaint, CNN attorneys wrote "there is an enormous public interest in scrutinizing the potential disenfranchisement of such a large pool of citizens in what portends to be a closely contested presidential race."

Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, said the state's arguments simply don't fly. The exclusion from the state's Government-in-the-Sunshine law is itself unconstitutional because it does not provide any benefit or protection for the public, she said. She also said that as a list of people who may be purged from voting rolls, the felon list should not be considered the same as voter registration information in the first place.

The plaintiffs in the case say they want a full list so that its validity may be independently verified. Florida officials hired a private firm in 2000 to flag felons and released a list with 173,142 names, many of which proved to be inaccurate. In fact, hundreds of legitimate voters may have been turned away from precincts. President Bush ultimately won in Florida by 537 votes after a 36-day recount. The 25 electoral votes from the state resulted in Bush winning the presidency.

© 2004 Wired.com

[mrbowler]

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Voter purge list’s errors spur outcry

San Carlos man on list by mistake

Staff and wire report
Published by news-press.com on July 3, 2004


A San Carlos Park man’s name appears on a Florida Division of Elections list of more than 47,000 voters who are suspected of being felons, dead or doubly registered.

The list was sent to county elections supervisors, who are expected to use it to determine who should be removed from the voting rolls before this year’s election.

Robert Gesek, 50, was surprised Friday to learn that his name was on the list. While he has a felony conviction in his past, he received clemency and has been voting ever since.

Gesek is one of thousands in Florida granted clemency who nonetheless appear on the
list for removal from voter rolls.
A registered Republican, Gesek said he lost his voting privileges for about eight years after a drug conviction as a teenager. He sought clemency specifically so he could regain the right to vote.

Gesek, who helped build a church float for today’s Fourth of July parade, said he had not encountered any problems voting.

“I’m very concerned (about being on the list),” Gesek said. “Nobody has contacted me. I have a voter registration card. If I have a problem voting this time, I’ll be very surprised.”

Wide release of the list came Thursday, after a judge ruled in favor of several media companies, including CNN and The News-Press, that filed suit seeking seeking copies of the list.

The revelation of potential errors brought condemnation from civil rights groups.

“There is no excuse for such negligence by state officials with regard to the most fundamental right of an American citizen — the right to vote,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

House Democrats called on elections director Dawn Roberts to recall the purge list and instruct election supervisors to ignore it.

“The prospect of Florida repeating the same disenfranchisement of its citizens as it did in 2000 is appalling,” wrote Reps. Dan Gelber, Arthenia Joyner and Anne Gannon.

The purge of felons from voter rolls has been an issue in Florida since the disputed 2000 presidential election. A company hired to identify ineligible voters before the election produced an error-filled list and some elections supervisors removed voters without verifying its accuracy.

The Division of Elections continues to warn it is the responsibility of supervisors to check the names.

Spokeswoman Nicole de Lara said the list is a database of potential matches, not a final list of names that will be purged from the voter rolls.

“We recognize there are people on this list that are not felons,” de Lara said. “This list is the beginning of the process, not the end of the process.”

The Division of Elections contracts with vendors to build its voter purge list from disparate sources: felon data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, clemency data from the Office of Executive Clemency, death data from Vital Statistics, and voter registration directly from the 67 counties.

Originally, Florida accepted near-matches between felons and voters for inclusion on the purge list. A court-approved settlement over the 2000 election by the NAACP and other civil rights groups now forces Florida to use tighter criteria.

The result: supervisors were asked in September to recheck 19,303 names given them in 1999 and 2000. One of three voters on the original purge lists are still waiting for that review.

People for the American Way has accused Florida of a breach of the court settlement, and the matter is scheduled for mediation next week.

Within hours of the judge’s decision Thursday, People for the American Way posted it on the Web.

“The state has admitted there could well be errors, which could include individuals who have never even committed a crime,” said Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way. “Now we can help people check for themselves.”

— Tallahassee reporter Paige St. John, staff writer Grant Boxleitner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[mrbowler]

Update: This could be fun to watch

"Provisional ballot that will be examined later to determine eligibility."

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MIAMI — Florida elections officials said Saturday they will not use a disputed list that was designed to keep felons from voting, acknowledging a flaw that could have allowed convicted Hispanic felons to cast ballots in November.

The glitch in a state that President Bush won by just 537 votes could have been significant — because of the state's sizable Cuban population, Hispanics in Florida have tended to vote Republican more than Hispanics nationally. The list had about 28,000 Democrats and around 9,500 Republicans, with most of the rest unaffiliated.

"Not including Hispanic felons that may be voters on the list ... was an oversight and a mistake," Gov. Jeb Bush (search) said. "And we accept responsibility and that's why we're pulling it back."

Gov. Bush said the mistake occurred because two databases that were merged to form the disputed list were incompatible.

The problem in compiling the list was unintentional and unforeseen, said Nicole de Lara, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood.

"Nevertheless, Supervisors of Elections are required to uphold their constitutional obligation" and will find other ways to ensure felons are removed from the rolls, Hood said in a statement.

Florida is one of only a handful of states that does not automatically restore voting rights to convicted felons once they've completed their sentence.

The decision to scrap the list was made after it was reported that the list contained few people identified as Hispanic; of the nearly 48,000 people on the list created by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (search), only 61 were classified as Hispanics.

That was because when voters register in Florida, they can identify themselves as Hispanic. But the potential felons database has no Hispanic category, which excludes many people from the list if they put that as their race.

The law enforcement list was compared to the voter rolls to determine who should be barred from voting.

The glitch, first reported by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, affected only those who identified themselves as Hispanic. A review of the voter list by The Associated Press found others with Hispanic surnames who did not identify themselves as Hispanic.

The purge of felons from voter rolls has been a thorny issue since the 2000 presidential election. A private company hired to identify ineligible voters before the election produced a list with scores of errors, and elections supervisors used it to remove voters without verifying its accuracy. A federal lawsuit led to an agreement to restore rights to thousands of voters.

The new list was released July 1, with officials saying Gov. Bush's administration was simply complying with federal election law. Problems with the list were quickly detected.

State officials have said there are people on the list who are not felons, and elections workers have flagged more than 300 people listed who might have received clemency.

Another problem was that about 2,700 people who had received clemency were still on the list. That was because they had registered to vote before they received clemency. The state initially required them to register again, but later backed off.

Gov. Bush, the president's brother, spoke with Hood early Saturday and agreed with the decision that her office made.

"It was the right thing to do," Bush said.

Since the 2000 election, the secretary of state's office has been moved from Cabinet status in Florida to an agency under the Republican governor.

Many Democrats were convinced state officials purposely culled too many voters from the rolls in order to ensure President Bush's re-election. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe (search) called it a "potential careless and needless disfranchisement of thousands of voters."

Civil rights advocates who wanted the list thrown out applauded the decision, but said some damage has already been done.

"Certainly there will be some people who received a letter, telling them effectively that they're going to be purged, who have been dissuaded from going to the polls altogether," said Jessie Allen, associate counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice (search) at the New York University School of Law.

State Sen. Les Miller, a Tampa Democrat who opposed the list, said he was pleased with Saturday's decision, but remained cautious.

"I still have a question mark in the back of my head, wondering what happens now," Miller said. "Are they saying 'that's it, we're not going to utilize it henceforth and forever more?' I need to know that."

Bush said the list will not be available to elections supervisors until he's comfortable that it actually will be "a useful tool."

Bush added, however, that he's concerned pulling back the list could mean "that more people who shouldn't be voting will be voting."

Election officials emphasized that the list is intended to be a starting point for county election supervisors.

On Election Day, anyone who feels they have been inadvertently removed from the voter rolls will be allowed to use a provisional ballot that will be examined later to determine eligibility.

[FUNdamental]

Could these shenanigans be part of the “caging” activities by Rove, Griffin, and the RNC, Monica Goodling spoke of last week? We know Florida was one of the key states targeted by the RNC for this voter suppression technique. The “felon” defense could have been another red herring used by the Republicans to justify their actions to the American people. Using “felons” to justify a felony is just rich, don’tcha think?