Sarasota News Leader

10/11/2013

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Sarasota News Leader October 11, 2013 Page 21 2,700 names, which Detzner's office sent to county supervisors of elections, instructing them to contact the voters to ask them to prove their citizenship. But the list swiftly generated controversy. It contained lawful voters, for one thing. And a Miami Herald data analysis found that Latinos and Democrats were disproportionately likely to be targeted. The federal Department of Justice ordered the state to halt the purge, while the state in turn sued the Department of Homeland Security. Florida argued it had the right to access the department's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which it said could provide more reliable citizenship data. Homeland Security eventually relented, and the Florida Department of State is now rebooting its effort, which includes accessing the SAVE database to identify potentially ineligible voters on a case-by-case basis. Detzner told the seven supervisors Tuesday that there is no timeline in place for the purge; the first step is to hold public roundtables, similar to this week's, around the state. Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews delivered a detailed walkthrough of how the new purge will work. In addition to scanning for information on any new voters, the state will comb through records for the 12 million voters already registered in Florida, first using the Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles database, then moving on to SAVE if there's reason to believe a voter might be a non-citizen. Matthews emphasized that it will not be a "batch process" like last year's, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner listens to comments in Sarasota on Tuesday. Photo by Cooper Levey-Baker but will instead consist of individual case management. "We're not throwing darts," she said. If Homeland Security indicates a voter is a non-citizen, the state will dig deeper — for example, into records such as those for naturalization ceremonies — and then pass along a full case file to the appropriate supervisor of elections. The supervisor will contact the person who has been flagged. Voters will have 30 days to respond, to fight the process. Ultimately, according to Matthews, the supervisor will make the "final determination" to remove a voter from the rolls. The discussion Tuesday seemed to give attendees confidence in the program. Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent, who had to leave the meeting early, told

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