Feds OK Fla. access to citizens list (victory for the vote caging wannabes)

[No Elephants]

what some might call vote caging.

Jul 14, 9:15 PM EDT

AP NewsBreak: Feds OK Fla. access to citizens list

By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a victory for Republicans, the federal government has agreed to let Florida use a law enforcement database to challenge people's right to vote if they are suspected of not being U.S. citizens.

The agreement, made in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott's administration that was obtained by The Associated Press, grants the state access to a list of resident noncitizens maintained by the Homeland Security Department. The Obama administration had denied Florida's request for months but relented after a judge ruled in the state's favor in a related voter-purge matter.

Voting rights groups, while acknowledging that noncitizens have no right to vote, have expressed alarm about using such data for a purpose not originally intended: purging voter lists of ineligible people. They also say voter purges less than four months before a presidential election might leave insufficient time to correct mistakes stemming from faulty data or other problems.

Democrats say that the government's concession is less troubling than some GOP-controlled states' push to require voters to show photo identification.

<snip>

Republican officials in several states say they are trying to combat voter fraud. Democrats, however, note that proven cases of voter fraud are rare. They accuse Republicans of cynical efforts to suppress voting by people in lower socio-economic groups who tend to vote Democratic.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FLORIDA_VOTER_LIST_PURGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-14-21-15-17

Yes, but nonetheless troubling.

On the other hand, would we really want to see this go to the SCOTUS?

On the third hand, this precedent might be even harder to pull back from than a SCOTUS precedent because courageous politicians either go out of vogue or get smeared out of politics, sometimes by their own party, or die, sometimes from small plane syndrome.

[jody]

1. "go to the SCOTUS?" I would to resolve questions why federal govt. refuses to give states data

needed to enforce federal laws.

I stand with Jefferson and Madison, founders of the Democratic Party, and their Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.

[No Elephants]

2. Rick Scott is not seeking that data in order to enforce any federal law.

Even if enforcement of a federal law were at issue, which it is not, the federal government is not under any obligation to provide states with data to enforce federal law.

This also has nothing to do with any Eighteenth Century resolutions (nor, does it have anything to do with the Alien and Sedition Act, which was the issue of those resolutions. The Alien and Sedition Act was aimed primarily at fear of anarchy, which was then threatening in Europe.

Among othre things, that Act restricted U.S. citizenship to free white persons and was otherwise xenophobic by even nineteenth century standards. So, I don't know how public you want to be about your support of those resolutions.

In any event that act has since been replaced more than once, rendering the resolutions that you mentioned moot.

Sounds as though you have been getting info from the wrong places. It is badly flawed, both as a matter of law and as a matter of historical fact.

BTW, you know that bit about Jefferson and Madison founding a Party that is like today's Democratic Party is a bit of a convenient political myth right?

Granted, Democrats love the myth, too but the Democratic Republican Party (which Madison started as the Republican Party) bears little resemblance to today's Democratic Party.

[jody]

3. See Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pin/docs/electbook-0507.pdf

C. FEDERAL JURISDICTION

The federal government asserts jurisdiction over an election offense to ensure that basic rights of United States citizenship, and a fundamental process of representative democracy, remain uncorrupted. An important, Department-wide “Ballot Access and 6 Voting Integrity Initiative” was announced by Attorney General Ashcroft on October 1, 2002, to combat election crimes and voting-related civil rights offenses through vigorous enforcement. Under this Department Initiative, the prosecution of all federal election crimes represents an important law enforcement objective. These enhanced enforcement efforts have not only served to protect a cornerstone of American democracy against corruption and abuse, they also have helped federal law enforcement attain an investigative foothold against other criminal activities that election crimes are often committed to foster or protect.