Noncitizen voter hunt targets Hispanics, NPAs but not GOP, whites

[mfcorey1]

The state’s quest to get rid of noncitizens voters this election year has turned up 180,000 hits — but it incidentally targets minorities and Democrats while giving white Republicans a pass.
By Marc Caputo and Patricia Mazzei [e-mail]

Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted in a state hunt to remove thousands of noncitizens from Florida’s voting rolls, a Miami Herald computer analysis of elections records has found.

Whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal, the analysis of a list of more than 2,600 potential noncitizens shows. The list was first compiled by the state and furnished to county election supervisors and then The Herald.

The numbers change by the day. The state’s Division of Elections says it initially identified roughly 180,000 potential noncitizens by performing a search of a computer database that doesn’t have the most-updated information.

About 58 percent of those identified as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population. They make up just 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters.

Those who have been flagged as potential noncitizens by the state are being contacted by county election supervisors. Many legitimate voters aren’t happy with what they see as a needless hassle from a government using bad data.

“I’m upset, because if someone is an American citizen, it is his right to vote. How can they be asking for this?” said Juan Artabe, a 41-year-old Democrat from Cuba who said he became a citizen in 2009.

“Very poor job by the elections department,” Artabe said. He said he was contacted last week by the Miami-Dade elections office and sent in a copy of his citizenship papers so he wasn’t struck from the voter rolls.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/12/2796905/noncitizen-voter-hunt-targets.html#storylink=cpy

[pipoman]

1. I really don't want non-citizens voting

and the 58% Hispanic makes sense, since most non-citizens in the US (especially FL) are most likely Hispanic. And the least likely to be non-citizens are likely black and white voters. I don't know what the party split would be other than it makes sense that non-citizens (and citizens for that matter) would be Democrats..

I also don't know what method is being used to determine if someone is potentially a non-citizen...even after reading the whole article.

I just am not quite convinced there is a scandal here, but my opinion could be changed..

[Sancho]

2. The plan is to harass Democratic voters...

Undocumented Floridians don't register to vote - because they don't want to get caught and be deported. To get a driver's license (that indicates if you are a citizen), you have to produce a birth certificate, marriage license, and a folder of specific documents.

Anyone who has registered to vote and voted is usually ok. By forcing 200,000 Democrats to defend their citizen ship - by writing return letters, producing documents, etc. they keep people from voting.

A bunch of seniors also don't have birth certificates, driver's licenses, or old marriage certificates, but no one is picking on that group!

[FlaGranny]

4. I beg to differ

"A bunch of seniors also don't have birth certificates, driver's licenses, or old marriage certificates, but no one is picking on that group!"

These people, especially women, have a hell of a hard time getting a driver's license (or state ID) - which you have to show when you go to vote. I know this because I just went through the hassle last year. It's enough to make many elderly women just give up trying.

[Sancho]

14. We're probably saying the same thing...

all my senior neighbors don't have birth certificates from Kansas and Argentina from the 1930's. They don't drive anyway. The state "voter inspection list" doesn't include those senior folks...it only picks on hispanics. More of the seniors vote for the GOP.

[fasttense]

5. I really couldn't care less if a handful of non-citizens voted.

This is a non-problem. Less than .01% of votes cast in this country even meet the criteria for illegal voting. And most of those cases were due to errors and mix ups.

But our states are gradually putting the squeeze on every single voter in the country by making them produce expensive and difficult to find documentation for a problem that does NOT really exist at all.

I say let the non-citizens and mixed up voters vote. It's such a small minority it is not going to change the out come.

But of course RepubliCONS have to have some kind of fake issue to scare the public and curtail true democracy.

[pipoman]

7. The 2000 FL election was decided by 537 votes..

just say'n

(of coarse I know that is questionable..)

[hobbit709]

10. the 2000 election was decided by Scalia and the gang of five.

Any LEGIT recount would have shown that Gore won.

[baldguy]

8. It has nothing to do with ensuring non-citizens don't vote, and you know it.

"Voter fraud", as described by the RW extremists who support laws like this, simply doesn't exist. All these GOP-sponsored voter suppression laws are designed & intended only to KEEP DEMOCRATS FROM CASTING BALLOTS.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. I'm a whole helluva lot more concerned about non-citizens BUYING the elections.

Under the provisions of Citizens United, foreign corporations & governments can pour howver much money they want into our electoral process.

And in Wisconsin, one of the "minorities" under special attack to prevent them from voting is college students. College ID is not good enough. If the law stands, they will have to have documentation such as WI drivers licenses now in order prove state residency.

[DallasNE]

13. That Won't Let A Lot Of Them Vote Either

If you are a student in Madison and have a drivers license with a Milwaukee address you can't vote either.

[DallasNE]

12. But This Doesn't Address That Issue

The voter is required to provide the proof of citizenship at the time they register to vote so how can this effort identify non-citizens when non-citizens can't register in the first place.

What they are doing is matching address information from drivers licenses with address information on voter records and saying you are potentially a non-citizen when they don't match. Of course there will be a lot of mismatches because you are required to re-register when you move but you cannot get a new drivers license until just before your old one expires.

Nobody wants non-citizens voting but this effort doesn't even target that. It targets people who move and that is mostly renters and renters vote mostly Democratic. What is disgusting is that no journalist is saying "wait a minute, how can this match possibly identify a non-citizen".

[secondvariety]

3. "..incidentlly targets minorities and Democracts..."

Incidentally my ass-this is the whole purpose of the "purge" (except for the radical Miami Cubans. They're special.). Gov. Numbnuts is just continuing Jeb Bush's policy of election rigging. Frankly, I'm over Florida politics-the mouth breathers of this state seem to be perfectly happy with what comes out of Tallahassee so let them have the politicians they deserve.
'

[pampango]

6. Many European countries allow noncitizens to vote in local and EU elections.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_foreigners_to_vote#European_Union_.28EU.29

One example is France:

(EU member) EU residents have voting and eligibility rights for local and European elections.

In France, the Socialist Party has discussed extending the right to vote to foreigners since the early 1980s (it was the 80th proposition of the 110 Propositions for France electoral program of 1981), but as it needed a Constitutional change it was felt that it would have been blocked by the Senate.

Polls suggest that a narrow majority of the public opinion is now favorable to it and even Nicolas Sarkozy and a few other prominent right-wing politicians like Philippe Séguin (candidate to the mayorship of Paris in 2001) Gilles de Robien and Jean-Louis Borloo have stated publicly that they personally supported it, but that they would respect the overwhelming opposition to it within their own parties. In January 2006 left-wing senators again tried to put the bill to allow foreigners to vote on the agenda, but the right-wing majority again blocked it.

Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, New Zealand, South Korea and others allow foreign residents to vote in local elections with varying rules governing this.

Of course the purpose of the Florida effort is not to keep the dreaded "foreigners" from voting, it is to harass people who are likely to vote Democratic.

[DallasNE]

9. "credible and reliable information"

There is nothing credible and reliable about what the State of Florida is doing here. Why would they ever try to match up voter information with drivers license information, especially if part of the match criteria is address. The only address that matters is on the voter information record. When people move they need to reregister but they can't get a new drivers license until the old one is about to expire, so of course the address information will mismatch. People that rent are being targeted and that means they are disproportionately minorities and mostly Democratic.