Florida 2000 Redux

A formidable legal battle is taking shape in the key battleground state of Florida.  At stake is Florida's 29 electoral votes and, quite possibly, the ever-tightening 2012 Presidential election.  Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott has ordered a purge from the voter rolls of up to 180,000 supposed non-citizens.  As happened in Florida's 2000 purge of alleged felons, mistakes will be made, eligible voters will be eliminated from the voter rolls and  turned away at the voting booth.

The political organization People for the American Way summarizes the impact of Florida's 2000 pre-election purge this way: "The state that ultimately decided the election for George W. Bush by a mere 537 votes, hired a firm to purge ex-felons -- who had lost their right to vote according to state law -- from the voter file. But the data match was so sloppy that countless eligible voters, mostly African American, were scrubbed from the file and turned away from the polls on Election Day."

It's not too different this time around...more than 60% of the "suspect" voters are African-American or have Hispanic surnames.  Considering Florida's flawed 2000 purge, the number of potential errors is staggering.  As with the Florida voter ID laws, this is clearly a partisan attempt to disenfranchise minority voters who typically vote Democratic.

Both the Federal Government and the State of Florida have filed lawsuits in the case.  As reported in by Janell Ross in a June 11 Huffington Post blog: "The Justice Department said it will sue Florida in federal court for violating two federal laws that prevent states from suppressing voters [the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 Voter Registration Act]....Hours earlier, Florida filed a lawsuit...against the ... U.S. Department of Homeland Security, accusing the agency of denying access to a federal database with information about immigrants."  You really have to admire the chutzpah of these Florida Republicans - blaming the Federal Government for causing them to violate the law! There is one bright spot in all this: so far all but one of the 67 county election supervisors have "refused to participate [in the voter purge], citing errors in the state's list of suspected non-citizens."

I'm not sure which is the worse assault on our democracy - the unlimited, anonymous cash unleashed by the Citizens United decision or the organized, blatant effort at voter suppression by Republican governors and legislators.  One thing seems clear, though: Florida's latest gambit is taking voter suppression to the next level.