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Angry voters gathered at the Supervisors of Elections office in Lauderhill to fight back against the Scott Administration’s latest attempt to purge Floridians from the voter rolls.
“We’re here today to tell Rick Scott and Ken Detzner to stop playing political games with Floridians’ fundamental right to vote,” announced Nancy Abudu of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. She reminded the crowd that Rick Scott’s Administration wasted over $100,000 of taxpayer money producing lists with hundreds and hundreds of citizens that local Supervisors of Elections proved were legally registered voters. 82% of voters on the first voter purge list were people of color.
Carolyn Thompson of the Advancement Project, a non-partisan civil rights organization, noted that Rick Scott’s Administration will again be using a flawed database to create its purge list. The SAVE database that Rick Scott’s Administration intends to use is a flawed, non-definitive resource for determining citizenship according to the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains it, and other federal officials and experts.
“This purge serves little purpose other than to intimidate voters of color,” said Anne Pierre of Florida New Majority. She expressed Floridians’ deep concern that voting in the state appears to be just a “political game of football for people like Rick Scott and his allies to kick around,” especially after Scott’s many actions as Governor that have put the right to vote free from intimidation and obstacles, at risk.
Voting rights advocates said the major threats to voter integrity are excessively long voting lines and error-filled lists that incorrectly identify eligible voters as non-citizens, putting them at risk of being kicked off the voter rolls.
