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Related: About this forumEven Rick Scott Can’t Find Virtually Any Non-Citizen Voters
Even Rick Scott Cant Find Virtually Any Non-Citizen Voters
By Ian Millhiser posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Oct 1, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) began a massive voter purge that initially targeted as many as 180,000 individuals to be removed from the states voter rolls. It quickly emerged, however, that Scotts lists were deeply flawed in one case, a 91 year-old decorated World War II veteran received a purge letter falsely informing him that you are not a U.S. Citizen and the purge was eventually halted after Floridas county elections officials, including 30 Republicans, rebelled against the purge.
Throughout this ordeal, which also included a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit challenging the purge and a pledge by a top Scott Administration official to restart the purge, Scott insisted this purge was necessary to prevent non-citizen voters from changing the result of the 2012 election.
Now, Scott has begun a second voter purge, albeit under greater scrutiny after the debacle that was his first attempt to prevent Floridians from voting. Despite Scotts previous claims that non-citizen voting is a major problem worthy of a massive voter purge, his own data now undermines this claim. After comparing a state database of drivers licenses with a federal database of immigration records, Rick Scotts Florida barely uncovered any potential non-citizen voters.
In total, Scotts quest for non-citizen voters flagged only 198 names of registered voters who may not be U.S. citizens and this is in a state where over 8 million people voted in the last presidential election. Of these 198 possible non-citizens, only 39 have actually ever voted. If any of the 198 names identified by Scotts new purge turn out to be non-citizens itself an uncertain proposition the most likely explanation for why many of them became registered to vote is that they accidentally registered while filling out paperwork to receive a drivers license, not that the alleged non-citizens intentionally tried to register illegally.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/01/931571/even-rick-scott-cant-find-virtually-any-non-citizen-voters/
otohara
(24,135 posts)many were immigrants and ALL shook their heads, no, no!! There's no way they will risk being tossed out of the country for voter fraud.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Rick Scott should be prosecuted and tossed in jail.
Samjm
(320 posts)They tried to do that in CO too. Similar results. (I was one of the Naturalized US Citizens that got a threatening letter from the Sec of State Scott Gessler.
Such a non-issue! Non-citizens who vote commit a crime. They are liable for deportation. And if they aren't caught initially it can later prevent them from ever becoming a naturalized citizen.
We can't even get all actual citizens to bother to vote. Why on earth would a non-citizen even try?
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/republicans-look-for-voter-fraud-find-little/
(I'm quoted in that article - I'm Samantha).
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)They think everybody is doing what they've been doing.