Two weeks ago, the Justice Department warned Florida not to purge their voter registration rolls, rolls that have thousands of illegal immigrants, dead people and felons on them. A letter was sent from DOJ to the Florida Secretary of State demanding saying the move to clean up the rolls had not been approved by the Voting Rights Act. Despite demands from DOJ, Florida has moved forward with the purge of ineligible voters and now, DOJ is suing Florida over the issue and Florida is suing the Department of Homeland Security for refusing them access to the I.C.E database. Florida Governor Rick Scott is telling the feds to take a hike, that the issue of voter fraud as a result of ineligible voters sitting on the voter rolls, is too important to ignore.
“It’s a no-brainer. Think about it. We don’t want non-U.S. citizens voting. In Florida, the debate’s over,” Scott said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.” “Now Justice is saying we’re doing something wrong. We want to make sure that our voters get to vote and but non-U.S. citizens don’t vote. It’s simple.”
“This is not a partisan issue. This isn’t Republican, Democrat or independent. This is protecting the rights of U.S. citizens and not diluting their vote by non-U.S. citizens. When non U.S. citizens register to vote and vote, it is illegal. It’s a crime it shouldn’t be happening in our great state,” he said. “We’re trying to fix our voters rolls and they’re trying to stop us. It doesn’t make any sense.”
The governor added that lawsuits between the federal government and the state of Florida would not be the best use of taxpayer dollars.
“What’s so frustrating is, we’re sitting here trying to watch how we spend our money, pay down our debt, do the right things for the citizens of our state, and the federal government tells us, ‘Oh no, you can’t do the right things for your citizens, and we’re going to sue you,’” he said, before repeating, “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Scott also said he is hopeful that the controversy could be resolved before Election Day, as he suggested that the purge would be critical to making every voter’s ballot count in the fall.
“Look, these elections sometimes are really close. We don’t want … non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls and voting. So I’m going to do my best to get it done as quickly as I can,” he said.
What a novel idea, non-U.S. citizens not voting.