All Florida's Election Supervisors Suspend Gov's Voter Purge
Photo by Gage Skidmore
Posted June 4, 2012 07:50 am | First published June 2 at 12:08 pm
On Thursday, the Justice Department demanded Florida Governor Rick Scott end his extensive purge of registered voters from the rolls because it was in violation of federal law. Scott still hasn’t formally responded but his county election supervisors have already taken action.
The Palm Beach Post reports:
Florida elections supervisors said Friday they will discontinue a state-directed effort to remove names from county voter rolls because they believe the state data is flawed and because the U.S. Department of Justice has said the process violates federal voting laws...
The Justice Department letter and mistakes that the 67 county elections supervisors have found in the state list make the scrub undoable, said Martin County Elections Supervisor Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections…
Ron Labasky, the association’s general counsel, sent a memo to the 67 supervisors Friday telling them to stop processing the list.
“I recommend that Supervisors of Elections cease any further action until the issues raised by the Department of Justice are resolved between the parties or by a Court,” Labasky wrote.
Previously, the State of Florida indicated they intended to accelerate the purge. Florida has until June 6 to respond to the Justice Department.
UPDATE
The State of Florida has not, as the Huffington Post and several other outlets are incorrectly reporting, already decided to defy the Department of Justice and continue the purge. In an email to ThinkProgress, Florida Secretary of State spokesman Chris Cate confirmed that the state was still reviewing the DOJ’s letter and would issue a formal response by June 6.