Voter Fraud

                    Over the past several months, several states have been attempting to combat voter fraud by clearing their registries of illegal voters.  Democrat and the Department of Defense have been fighting the effort.  The State of Florida took the matter to court and won a victory.

                    According to Charles Babington of the Associated Press, "… 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 … grants the state access to a list of resident non-citizens 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."

                    Republicans consider this decision to be a "victory" in "their broad-based fight over voter eligibility, an issue that could play a big role in the White House race.  That's especially true in pivotal states such as Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and North Carolina…. 

                    "The Homeland Security decision may affect places beyond Florida, because Colorado and other states have asked for similar access to the federal database."

                    The Obama administration fought the State's right to purge voter rolls and refused to work with them.  "After a judges recently ruled against federal efforts to stop Florida's aggressive voter-list review, Homeland Security agreed to work on details for how the state can access the federal SAVE database - Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements - to challenge registered voters suspected of being noncitizens.

                    "Florida has agreed that it can challenge voters only if the state provides a `unique identifier,' such as an `alien number,' for each person in question.  Alien numbers generally are assigned to foreigners living in the country legally, often with visas or other permits such as green cards.

                    "Unless they become naturalized citizens, however, they cannot vote."

                    Florida Governor Rick Scott considers this decision to be "a significant victory for Florida and for the integrity of our election system."  He claimed that "Access to the SAVE database will ensure that noncitizens do not vote in future Florida elections."

It seems to me that Florida and other states may still have a big problem because "the agreement will prevent Florida from using only a name and birthdate to seek federal data about a suspected noncitizen on voter rolls.

"The SAVE list is unlikely to catch illegal immigrants in any state who might have managed to register to vote because such people typically would not have an alien number."

Florida has removed 86 noncitizens from the voter rolls since April 11 and found that "more than half of them had voted in previous elections."  Election officials in Florida were asked on Saturday to restart the review; Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said that the review will "include a carefully calibrated matching process" between driver and voter data in the State "before any records are verified through SAVE."

Other states have sought for years to access the federal database.  In 2005 the feds told Washington State that "they saw no way to compare voters and the Homeland Security information.

"Colorado has sought the federal data for a year.  Colorado, which has a Democratic governor but a Republican secretary of state, Scott Gessler, has identified about 5,000 registered voters that it wants to check against the federal information.

"Officials in the politically competitive states of Ohio, Michigan, New Mexico and Iowa - all led by GOP governors - are backing his efforts."

I do not understand how the efforts of the federal government can be approved by anyone.  What American citizen who loves their nation and wants to maintain the American way of life can condone any practices that keep unqualified people on the voting registers of the nation.  Nearly everyone in our nation has some kind of picture identification, but the Democrats are fighting against requirements of showing a picture ID in order to vote.  The Obama administration has been fighting the States about purging voter rolls.

I want every eligible voter to have an opportunity to vote, but I do not want my vote to be cancelled by an ineligible vote!  I am grateful to learn that there are governors, secretaries of state, and judges who are willing to aid in the fight against voter fraud!