Gov. Rick Scott on Monday defended the state’s effort to remove potentially ineligible voters from the rolls, saying the timing had to do with the Department of Homeland Security failing to provide an immigration database that had been requested.
“When you go out to vote you want to make sure that the other individuals that are voting have a right to vote. That’s what I care about,” Scott said during a stop for a business roundtable Monday morning in Quincy. “If you’re a candidate, you want to make sure that the people who vote in your election are the people that have a right to vote. So my focus is in making sure that our state has fair elections, people that have a right to vote, vote, because I don’t want to disenfranchise anybody in their voting rights.”
Scott said the timing – just months before the election – was due to the state trying to get information from the federal Homeland Security agency that would make the list of pontentially ineligible voters more complete. So far, the state has been unable to get access to that database.
“There’s no perfect time to do any of these things,” Scott said.
Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reported that, President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security refused to provide an immigration database that Florida had requested, for almost nine months. Instead, the Department of Justice last Thursday ordered the state to stop the purge, indicating that time had run out.
It is not yet clear whether Florida will heed the DOJ’s order. It is clear though, while Florida has a less than sterling history when it comes to race and voting, and Scott changed the election rules making it harder for minorities – African-Africans and Hispanics – and the less well-off to vote, the Obama administration, no doubt, played a role in the current mess.
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