State officials have suspended the state’s controversial non-citizen voter purge.
In a memo to local election officials, Florida’s Secretary of State Ken Detzner said the state would not be continuing its effort to remove non-citizens from its voter rolls.
State officials are temporarily halting the purge because a federal database they use is being redesigned and it not expected to be done until after this year.
Gov. Rick Scott, who initiated the voter purge, maintained that it’s a good idea.
“You know, my main concern is about the sacred right to vote,” he said. “I don’t want it to be diluted by somebody that doesn’t have the rights to vote. The national database is doing some changes. The secretary of state’s office is working with them. So, they are working to make sure everything is right. I don’t want anybody’s sacred right to be diluted.”
The Florida League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which have both been fighting the voter purge since 2012, cheered this latest development.
