BREAKING!
Palm Beach County refuses to continue voter purge:
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher, a former Democratic state representative, told ThinkProgress in an interview that while the state of Florida sent her county 115 names of voters it considered “sure matches” with a list of non-citizens, her office determined the list’s documentation to be “not credible” and has not sent out letters asking for verification of citizens to any of those voters.
Bucher said:
We need to make sure we have reliable and credible information, by a preponderance of evidence. We could prove that the information was not credible before sending letters and even the Division of Elections has admitted substantial flaws. I did not feel we had credible information and told them I wouldn’t send [any letters] until they could give me a better list.
This thing is not working out so well, we know the information [on which the state relied to flag these names] is very old. They [listed the voter's] last transaction date with [the Florida Department of] Highway Safety — in many cases, [the was 2000, 2002]. By now they probably have become citizens – I questioned immediately.
As does Hillsborough County:
Craig Latimer, chief of staff to Dr. Earl Lennard in the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office, tells CL that his office received 72 names from Tallahassee labeled as "noncitizens" on April 13. The SOE's office then sent certified letters to those citizens informing them that they were ineligible to vote, adding that if they disputed that claim, they could come to the SOE's office to prove otherwise.
Latimer says that five people came to the office with their birth certificates proving they were born in the U.S. Another citizen came with a passport that also indicated U.S. citizenship.
"So at that point it was obvious it wasn't very credible and reliable information, so we suspended any further action."
