Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/190797
Sarasota News Leader October 11, 2013 Page 22 The Sarasota News Leader the new process is "180 degrees different" from the one in 2012. "Last year, what we were given was a spreadsheet with the names and the dates of birth," Dent said. "This year they're planning on giving us case files like they do with the felons," she continued. "Following that, Sarasota County is going to take a look, and unless we're 100 percent sure, we won't remove anyone." Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett guaranteed that his office will ensure the accuracy of anything that comes in from the state or SAVE. "We will verify what they send us," he told the News Leader. Nancy Goethe, the voter service chairwoman with the local League of Women Voters, told the News Leader the new process is "200 percent better than last year's." In a written statement later emailed to reporters, the League argued that the purge needs to be "fully transparent" and that "past attempts at purging of the voter files in Florida have been disastrous." Gov. Rick Scott set voter purges in action in 2012. Photo from www.flgov.com on a problem that may not exist. "The focus here is not whether there is a problem," Matthews answered. Even if the eventual number of ineligible voters is low, "that doesn't obviate our responsibility to make sure the rolls are clean," she said. Para told the News Leader after the meeting that making sure elections are conducted smoothly should be a higher priority than the purge. "I'm more concerned with hanging chads." But some questioned whether the purge is even necessary. When Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer asked for a rough estimate of how many non-citizens might be on the rolls today, Detzner said Dent said she doesn't expect a huge influx of no one knows. "We don't have the data," he names. Even last year, Sarasota County's list answered. "That's what this process is about." only had 13 voters on it. The county did idenGreg Para, an Afghanistan veteran who last tify one Canadian on the list, who fessed up week launched a Democratic campaign to to illegally registering to vote, but that's about unseat Republican state Rep. Ray Pilon of it, Dent said. "In my mind, I don't think we're Sarasota, asked why the state was so focused going to see very many." %