Florida elections division chief quits amid controvery on voter rolls

[JohnLocke]

Florida elections division chief quits amid controvery on voter rolls
By Bob Mahlburg -- Sun-Sentinel
Tuesday, July 8, 2004
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TALLAHASSEE · The head of Florida's elections division resigned Monday amid reports he was feeling political heat over a push to purge thousands of suspected felons from the state's voter rolls.
Ed Kast, who has worked for the state elections division for more than a decade, said only that he was resigning to "pursue other opportunities."
But Kast has told a handful of associates that he was uncomfortable with growing pressure to trim felons from voter rolls in time for the fall election, friends say.
"I've known him for 20 years, and I believe he has acted because under the circumstances it's the only thing he could do," said Leon County Election Supervisor Ion Sancho, past president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.
"Ed had made a number of comments that the nature and timing of this felons list was not something he was responsible for. I think he felt in good conscience he could no longer be involved in the operations."
Hours earlier, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson joined a lawsuit to force state election officials to reveal the names of 47,000 suspected felons who could be dropped from voting lists, saying he wanted to be sure mistakes in 2000 are not repeated.
"This year, Ohio and Florida are looked upon as the two states that could decide the presidential election and we just can't go through this again," the Florida Democrat said.
(...)
"It's a sign of serious disarray and instability," said Sharon Lettman, state director for People For the American Way Foundation.
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Read the rest here.
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You can talk more about this in the http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=145&topic_id=684&mesg_id=684&page=">Latest Breaking News if you want.

[AspenRose]

1. Is this posted in latest breaking news too?

If not, it should be....

[JohnLocke]

2. It is now.

Here.

[Bushfire]

3. New info now in LBN too, county election officials defy Jeb!

Posted on Thu, Jun. 10, 2004

ELECTION 2004


Purging of rolls to go slowly

Election supervisors from throughout Florida said they would move slowly before removing from the rolls people who the state says may be felons ineligible to vote.

BY GARY FINEOUT

[e-mail]


KEY WEST - Election supervisors from across the state said Wednesday that they plan to independently verify whether someone is ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction.

Supervisors, meeting at their summer conference in Key West, did not recommend a uniform way for counties to investigate criminal histories of voters. But most of them said they would not purge any voters from a state list of possible felons without doing their own checking of criminal records.

''I believe that every supervisor is going to do their due diligence,'' said Kathy Dent, Sarasota County supervisor of elections. ``It's going to be a slow process. Unless we're 100 percent sure, no one is going to be taken off the rolls.''

MAY 5 MEMO

The controversy over felons was triggered by a May 5 memo from (recently resigned) state Division of Elections Director Ed Kast. The memo said the state had identified nearly 48,000 registered voters who also had felony convictions and asked supervisors to begin the process of removing them from the rolls. Florida bans convicted felons from voting unless their rights are restored by the state.

<snip>

But some supervisors, such as Leon County elections chief Ion Sancho, and outside groups say they have found errors on the new list. Civil rights groups have been urging that supervisors independently evaluate each case before starting the purge process -- which starts when the supervisors send a notice by certified mail to the voter who is going to be taken off the rolls. A voter who fails to respond to the letter -- or to a subsequent public notice in a newspaper -- will be removed.

more...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8884960.htm?ERIGHTS=67... |Elizabeth|Y

good news if county supervisors do their job

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=614381#614580

please go to LBN, and keep this on Page 1 today. Any local opinions on County election officials mentioned also would be welcome.