How Rick Scott’s noncitizen voter purge started small and then blew up

Florida’s latest elections controversy began in the smallest of ways: a five-minute chat a year ago between Gov. Rick Scott and his top election official.

At the time, about February 2011, the newly elected governor was touring the office run by then-Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who put on a presentation about Florida’s voting rolls and elections issues for the political newcomer.

That’s when Scott — a Republican who campaigned as an immigration hardliner — asked a simple question: How do we know everyone on the rolls is a U.S. citizen?

Ros-Lehtinen says she backs Holder contempt vote

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said she backs fellow House Republicans in their effort to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee may vote next week to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide subpoenaed documents in what's known as the "Fast and Furious" gun operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The vote is scheduled for next Wednesday. (Ros-Lehtinen is not on the committee.)

Here's her statement: "I support the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s vote to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress.  Mr. Holder has not been forthcoming nor cooperative in the Committee’s efforts to find out what exactly occurred with the disastrous ‘Fast and Furious’ program that put guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

‘Fast and Furious’ also led to the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry who was killed by a weapon lost in this failed operation. His family is looking for justice to be served and asking for those responsible to be held accountable.

Mr. Holder continues to stonewall Congress about this operation. This is a serious charge, and the Justice Department must come clean."

It's official: DOJ sues Florida over voter purge

DOJ said as much yesterday. Now, here's the press release and lawsuit:

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida and the Florida Secretary of State in his official capacity alleging that the state has violated its obligations under Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

The complaint, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, alleges that Florida has violated the NVRA by conducting a systematic program to purge voters from its voter registration rolls within the 90-day quiet period before an election for federal office established by the law.  In addition, the complaint alleges that Florida’s use of inaccurate and unreliable voter verification procedures violates the requirement in Section 8 of the NVRA that any such program be uniform and nondiscriminatory.

“The Department of Justice has an overriding interest in protecting the rights of eligible citizens to register and vote free from unlawful burdens, while at the same time ensuring that ineligible persons do not register and vote in federal elections in violation of the law,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  “The department is committed to enforcing the National Voter Registration Act so that these objectives are met.”

The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring that the defendants have failed to comply with the requirements of Section 8 of the NVRA, and enjoining Florida from taking any further steps in connection with this list purge program.

“Congress enacted the NVRA against a historical backdrop in this country in which purge programs initiated close to elections prevented and deterred eligible citizens from casting ballots,” said Assistant Attorney General Perez.  “The 90-day quiet period in the NVRA protects eligible voters from being dropped from the rolls right before an election.  It appears that Florida has undertaken a new program for voter removal within this 90-day period that has critical imperfections, which lead to errors that harm and confuse eligible voters.”

More information about the NVRA and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice website at www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/.  Complaints about discriminatory voting practices may be reported to the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

Download US v Florida complaint

PolitiFact Florida: Chris Matthews misses on 48-hr deadline for voter applications

Count MSNBC’s Chris Matthews among those who think a new voting law passed in Florida in 2011 is bad public policy.

On his show Hardball, Matthews discussed the law -- in particular, a requirement that voter registration groups return signed applications within 48 hours or face fines -- with Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry and Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of a civil rights group called the Advancement Project.

Matthews and his guests were discussing federal Judge Robert Hinkle’s May 31, 2012, decision to deem the 48-hour rule unconstitutional. In his ruling, Hinkle said the Legislature’s restrictions have made it "risky business" for third-party groups to register new voters.

"He said -- quote -- ‘If the goal is to discourage voter registration drives, and thus also to make it harder for new voters to register, this may work. Otherwise, there is little reason for such a requirement’," Matthews said, quoting Hinkle.

From there, Matthews dressed down Curry, saying the law makes it impossible in some cases for voter registration groups to meet that deadline.

Read our fact-check here.

Jim Norman withdraws from Senate race

State Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, withdrew from his Senate re-election bid this morning. We haven't heard from him yet, but other legislative leaders said they aren't surprised by the news because ethical challenges have dogged the senator and opponents were lining up to challenge him.

Download Norman withdrawal letter

Sen. Jack Latvala said he talked to Norman and knew his colleague would be withdrawing. Latvala, a Clearwater Republican, said he feels the decision is best for Norman. 

“I think he just needs to start thinking about his future and providing for his family. Anything he does as long as he’s in public life, you know you guys are just going to be on him," Latvala said to the Times/Herald.

"And every newspaper story and ever story about him is going to start with him: 'Norman, comma, who did this, that and the other.' I just think he came to the end of the line with that and came to the realization that it would be better for him to get into private life and get out of public life,” Latvala said.

There are three Republicans who are remaining in the District 17 Senate race, including state Rep. John Legg, who has received several high-profile endorsements. The others are John Korsak and former state Rep. Rob Wallace.

Read more about Norman's decision to bow out of the race here.

Sheldon Adelson pens $250k check to Rick Scott

Sheldon Adelson, the gambling magnate who pretty much kept Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign in business, wrote a $250,000 check to Gov. Rick Scott's "Let's Get to Work" political action committee last week, records show.

The donation is dated June 5.

Adelson and his relatives donated more than $16 million to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning the Future during the GOP presidential primary. In Scott's case, it's unclear if Adelson like Scott's politics, or if he's hoping to push for increased gambling in the state. Most likely, it's both.

Scott flew to Las Vegas to meet with Adelson during his transition into office.

Florida Power & Light also wrote a $250,000 check dated June 4, and the anti-lawyer group Committee for Florida Justice Reform contributed $100,000. The group was among the strongest advocates for the changes to the state's no-fault car insurance law.

The money pumped into Scott's account -- about $750,000 in the last 8 days -- is an excellent reminder that, despite Scott's low approval ratings, Scott stands to pose a formidable challenge to any Democrat in 2014.

Bill Nelson: Governor "should ensure the credibility of our voter rolls."

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is poised this afternoon to give a short speech on the Senate floor decrying Republican Gov. Rick Scott's controversial non-citizen voter purge.

Yesterday, Scott’s chief elections official sued, filing a federal lawsuit in Washington that accused the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of unlawfully refusing Florida access to a federal database that could help the state spot and remove noncitizens from the voter rolls.

Moments after the state filed suit, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez roared back in a sharply worded five-page letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, which ordered the state two weeks ago to stop the purge because it could violate two federal voting laws.

The state’s program is too "faulty," and comes too close to election time to not endanger the voting rights of thousands of lawful U.S. citizens, Perez wrote. He said Florida has repeatedly ignored Homeland Security’s warning that the department’s database, known as SAVE, isn’t designed for the noncitizen hunt on which Florida embarked.

Here are Nelson's prepared remarks:

"As I was heading to the Capitol this morning, I couldn’t help but think about the jolting news from my state: the Justice Department will sue Florida over its purge of voting rolls.

Being a native Floridian whose family came to Florida 183 years ago, and having served the people of my state for years, I simply cannot believe the State of Florida would deliberately make it more difficult for lawful citizens to vote.

But the governor did sign the new law last summer to reduce early voting days and blunt voter registration drives.

Then he launched this massive purge of the voter rolls - hunting for suspected noncitizens.  And in so doing, he’s now defying federal authorities who say you cannot conduct a purge of voter rolls so close to an election.

The governor and his administration should ensure the credibility of our voter rolls.  It should have a program to suppress fraud. 

But above all else, the state must ensure that every lawful citizen who has the right to vote can do so without impediment.

It was a long time ago, but something Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said about voting rights seems appropriate again.  Dr. King said, "The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic traditions.  It is democracy turned upside down."

I hope the governor will heed those words."

Beach commissioner receives apology from prosecutors

After clearing two Miami Beach commissioners of allegations they broke Florida’s Sunshine Law before a vote to fire their city manager, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has apologized – to a different
commissioner.
Ed Griffith, a state attorney’s office spokesman, wrote an apology to Commissioner Ed Tobin Monday afternoon following a scathing email from the elected official, who said he’d been wrongly named as the complainant in a case against commissioners Deede Weithorn and Jonah Wolfson.
“Upon reviewing our recollections, we incorrectly believed that the information came from you,” Griffith wrote. “I have since learned, both through your communication and from far more detailed
conversations with others, that it did not.  For my error, I owe you my deepest apology.”
Tobin has called for investigations from the dais, and once told Wolfson he'd be lead out of City Hall in handcuffs. Last week, Police Chief Raymond Martinez said Tobin had wrongly accused him
of being implicated in an internal affairs probe.
Griffith did not clarify who actually filed the complaint in his letter to Tobin. He noted that the investigation “arose in somewhat of a confused manner.”

Causeway attack brings new attention to synthetic drugs

The face-eating attack on a homeless man in Miami last month has brought renewed attention to the state’s and law enforcement’s increasingly difficult efforts to stay one step ahead of an industry that is ready to profit from sales of legal but harmful synthetic drugs.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has worked to outlaw manmade narcotic “bath salts” since shortly after she took office, said she is ready to add more chemicals to the list of banned substances, including “Spice” and other synthetic drugs sold at gas stations and specialty shops. Her spokeswoman said Bondi is trying to “remain vigilant.”

But law enforcement officials, who are seeing a spike in uncharacteristically violent behavior associated with users of synthetic drugs, worry that with every banned chemical added to the list, manufacturers of the compounds concoct a new combination that gets around the ban.

They are calling for Bondi, state legislators and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to make it harder for manufacturers to circumvent existing bans and keep new variations of the dangerous drugs from store shelves. Currently, every new compound has to be identified before it is outlawed, and law enforcement officials say it’s time for a new system.

“We could have 10,000 different substances banned before long, as the chemists in China or wherever they are keep modifying them,” said Tommy Ford, a major in the Bay County Sheriff’s Office who first brought the bath salts issue to Bondi’s attention in 2011.

Read more here.

Jim Norman's opponent says Tallahassee leaders trying to influence Senate race

John Korsak, one of three primary challengers to state Sen. Jim Norman, issued a statement today saying rumors that Norman is bowing out of the race indicate backroom dealings in Tallahassee and possibly an attempt by legislative leaders to ease the way for a particular candidate.

Korsak's statement indicates that he is ready to battle for the Republican nomination in District 17 and takes a shot at state Rep. John Legg, who last month announced he was also running for that seat instead of District 18.

"... People should know that Senator Norman’s decision does not automatically bless any one candidate with a nomination," Korsak wrote. "If Jim Norman is to be held accountable for his actions, then John Legg must also answer for his own questionable ethics and political shenanigans."

Legg announced last month that he had changed his mind and would run against Norman so that he wouldn't have to uproot his family. He has faced questions about whether his lives in the Port Richey home on his voter registration (in his old Senate district) or in his wife's home in Trinity (in Norman's district). Former state Rep. Rob Wallace is also running in the District 17 Republican primary.

Here is Korsak’s full statement: