Ben Jealous, the President and CEO of the NAACP, doesn't think much of what Governor Rick Scott is trying to do to insure that non-citizens don't vote this year in Florida.
At a press conference in Washington this morning, Jealous called Scott's actions in suing the Department of Homeland Security to gain access to a database "deeply troubling."
Scott has said Homeland Security is unfairly blocking access to the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program (SAVE), which he says would provide the most accurate database to pick off ineligible voters. In a letter sent to Scott yesterday, the Justice Department rejects Scott's claims.
"He has seemed committed to repeat the sins of 2000 and to clear as many voters off the rolls as possible in black and Latino and poor communities, " Jealous said, referencing the 2000 presidential election in Florida in which tens of thousands of eligible voters were incorrectly listed as ex-felons who had not had their voting rights restored.
Noting the high number of minority voters in the initial database of nearly 2,600 voters that were said to be non-citizens and were sent to the supervisors of election to be purged (which has since been stopped), Jealous wondered whether Scott's motivation was "racial or partisan and our people are just roadkill?"
He said "we will holler and object either way. The way he's approaching this is beneath his office and is a threat to democracy in this country." Jealous said he will continue to support the Department of Justice aggressive actions against Scott regarding the purge of non-citizen voters, which was stopped when a number of eligible voters were incorrectly listed.
This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2012.