U.S. Justice Department to sue Florida over voting rolls purge

The United States Justice Department has sent a letter stating it will take legal action against the state of Florida, citing violations of voting rights laws. Assistant attorney general for civil rights Thomas Perez said, “Because the State has indicated its unwillingness to comply with these requirements, I have authorized the initiation of an enforcement action against Florida in federal court.” The lawsuit comes after the Justice Department began questioning the legality of Florida’s so-called voter purge program, which would remove names from Florida’s voter rolls months before the 2012 presidential election. Florida will play a vital role as a battleground state with a large chunk of electoral votes.

Florida’s decision to eliminate non-eligible voters from its lists began after the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, urged the state to identify non-U.S. citizens who had registered to vote illegally. Using information from Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the state identified more than 100,000 names of non-eligible voters that could potentially be on the lists illegally. Critics have reportedly said that Florida’s plan unfairly targets minorities and paint it as an attempt to dissuade typically Democratic voters from going to the polls to vote in elections. “Please immediately cease this unlawful conduct,” the letter from the department states.