Florida gets access to Homeland Security database for voter purge

Gov. Rick Scott, still trying to decide 2012. (Reuters) AP is reporting that the Department of Homeland Security has granted Florida access to its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, giving the state access to a list of resident noncitizens maintained by DHS. But there are some restrictions and some caveats, as explained by Election Smith. The key part:

First, the pending agreement with Homeland Security prohibits the state of Florida from using only the name and birth date of registered voters when requesting SAVE data to verify whether registered voters are noncitizens. Second, the Division of Elections may only access the SAVE database if it provides a 'unique identifier"'such as an 'alien number' or a certificate number on a Certificate of Naturalization or Certificate of Citizenship'for those who it suspects may be ineligible to be registered to vote.

The state doesn't'and shouldn't'require that information for voter registration. And the only information that might include a "unique identifiers" that the state has, the drivers license records, they admit is obsolete and shouldn't be used. Election Smith has this snippet from a letter Sec. of State Ken Detzner sent to the state's 67 county election supervisors, telling them not to use the existing list (which was culled from the out-of-date drivers list):

The process to identify potential non-citizens will include a carefully calibrated matching process between the Florida Voter Registration System and the driver's license records of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles before any records are verified through SAVE. The existing file of potentially ineligible voters which was created months ago, is now outdated and will not be used as the basis for further action by the Department of State. It should be considered obsolete.

So the only information the state can use to check against the SAVE database is from admittedly inaccurate and outdated information, the driver's license records. Detzner is suggesting it's only outdated because it's a few months old, but it's the same incorrect data that caught up eligible voters and citizens in its first iteration. That's supposed to be matched against a database, as Election Smith says, "created for vastly different purposes."

That's bound to lead to more false matches, and more eligible voters purged off the rolls, stripped of the right to vote. The best hope we have is that the county election supervisors, who called a halt to the purge when the initial problems with the list emerged, that they'll be extremely cautious in proceeding with any database "matches."

We need those elections supervisors to do the right thing, because the Republican administration in Florida is intent on continuing this purge and stealing the election.