[I]n the last few days, the Division of Elections released a list of the names of 86 voters it says have been removed by local supervisors because they were non-citizens between April 11 and June 8. About half of them are listed as having voted.That, backers of the purge effort say, proves the need for the move, because it shows that some non-citizens have indeed registered and cast votes.
Florida Governor Rick Scott has been promoting his state's law as a necessary measure, especially absent the federal government's responsibility to combat voter fraud. But now, the Obama Administration is alleging that Florida is violating the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Scott also defended the initiative. He denied that the purge could unfairly target Latino residents, and he said he's just trying to fairly enforce the law."We need to have fair elections in our state. I want to make sure that when we have elections ... not one person's vote gets diluted by somebody that doesn't have the right to vote," Scott told Fox News. "We're doing the right thing. ... We have people that are voting illegally in our races -- that's not right."
As we had with Arizona and SB 1070, a red state is taking the responsibility on itself to enforce laws that the federal government is allegedly not enforcing - and the Obama Administration has responded in kind with another lawsuit.