# Florida Congressman Demands Gov. Rick Scott ‘Immediately Suspend’ Voter Purge **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 25, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092 "2012-05-25T19:13:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/1 "2012-05-25T19:13:31Z")
[Florida Congressman Demands Gov. Rick Scott ‘Immediately Suspend’ Voter Purge.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/23/489511/exclusive-florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/) > [@](#): > > Florida Congressman Ted Deutch (D) told ThinkProgress today that Gov. Rick Scott was engaging in a “blatant attempt to supress voter turnout.” Scott is currently involved in a massive effort to purge up to 180,000 from the voting rolls. The list, purportedly of non-citizens, has proven unreliable. Earlier this week, Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel, a Republican, posted a picture on Twitter of a voter on the list falsely identified as ineligible, with his passport. > > Congressman Deutch said that his office has heard from several constituents who have recieved a voting ineligibility letter in error. In light of these errors, Deutch will soon send a letter to Scott demanding the purge be immediatly suspended. An excerpt: > > > [@](#): > > > > It is out of grave concern that **we write to ask for the immediate suspension of the Florida Division of Elections’ directive that county supervisors of elections purge up to 180,000 names from Florida’s voter rolls** in advance of the November 2012 elections. > > > > While we all agree that the right to vote should be reserved only to those who are eligible, any process that could strip Floridians of their voting rights should be conducted with the utmost caution and transparency, and certainly not within six months of a major federal election and within 90 days of the primary. **Providing a list of names with questionable validity – created with absolutely no oversight – to county supervisors and asking that they purge their rolls will create chaotic results and further undermine Floridians’ confidence in the integrity of our elections.** A rushed process will undermine both Florida and federal law requiring voter rolls to be maintained in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner. Go Deutch! 😃 Let’s not have [what happened in Florida in 2000](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Voter_roll_purge_in_the_2000_Florida_election) happen ever again. :mad: Anyway – how will this affect the voting in November? I don’t mean just in Florida, all the states are wrestling with this. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/2 "2012-05-25T22:23:14Z")
“This” being the wide-scale voter suppression efforts? But James OKeef conclusively proved that people are able to vote under someone else’s name. Plus, making people take extra steps (the coincidence that they’re most likely Democratic voters is inconsequential) to vote is a good thing. A personal cost, something identical to a poll tax unless you’re speaking in technical terms of art reserved for different sorts of discussions, is actually a _good_ thing for democracy, because it limits the number of people voting–that those people who it limits tend to be in opposition to the Republican party is, well, just a coincidence. Nevermind that the effort or requirements have no bearing on civics (though if you don’t have the money or lifestyle for a car, you shouldn’t be presumed worthy of the vote; hence you should be the one who takes extra steps to vote). Oh, fuck all this voter suppression. It’s turning into one of those litmus issues. For voter ID laws? Really? Okay, it lets me write you off as unconcerned about policy or democracy; it’s party over country for you! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/3 "2012-05-25T23:02:59Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > “This” being the wide-scale voter suppression efforts? “This” being the fightback. Too little too late? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/4 "2012-05-25T23:19:50Z")
Oops, sorry. I think the problem is that people have found Constitutionally legal methods to suppress the vote. There should be pushback, but the false claim of voter fraud infects the public sphere such that the true motives are somewhat opaque–making pushback politically difficult. Further complicating things is that for about half the electorate, it benefits their party. Lastly, most people are largely unaffected by the attempts, so the outrage is less than it should be. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/5 "2012-05-27T07:01:42Z")
More news: [HuffPo:](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/latino-voters-florida-voter-rolls-purge_n_1525061.html) > [@](#): > > **Latino Voters Likely To Bear Brunt Of Florida’s Voter Rolls Purge** > > Posted: 05/17/2012 5:34 pm Updated: 05/18/2012 6:56 pm > > Less than two months after a Florida effort to identify and purge ineligible voters from the state’s rolls began, opponents say it seems likely to disqualify a disproportionate share of eligible Latino voters. > > About 180,000 people – a group roughly equal to the population of Tallahassee, Fla. – are at risk of being purged from the state’s voter rolls because they have been identified as possible noncitizens, the Miami Herald reported. Looking at a smaller sample of 2,600 suspect voters initially identified by the state, the newspaper found about 58 percent to be Latino. Hispanic voters constitute just 13 percent of the state’s electorate, according to federal data. > > Florida often grabs national attention because it’s home to 11.3 million voters and wields 29 Electoral College votes. But Republican secretaries of state elsewhere, including Colorado and New Mexico, have also launched aggressive efforts to identify noncitizens on their voter rolls. Critics contend that many of these purges have relied on questionable methods and allow public officials to make inaccurate claims about the number of ineligible people who have actually obtained and used voting credentials. [ThinkProgress:](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/26/490971/florida-supervisor-of-elections-scott-voter-purge-remove-eligible-voters/) > [@](#): > > **Florida Supervisor of Elections: Gov. Scott’s Voter Purge Will Remove Eligible Voters From Rolls** > > By Judd Legum on May 26, 2012 at 11:00 am > > According to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, eligible voters will be removed from the voting rolls as a result of the massive voter purge ordered by Governor Rick Scott. “It will happen,” Mary Cooney, a spokeswoman for the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, told ThinkProgress. > > Late last year, Governor Scott ordered his Secretary of State, Kurt Browning to “to identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls.” Browning could not get access to reliable citizenship data. So Scott urged election officials to identify non-U.S. citizens by comparing data from the state motor vehicle administration with the voting file. > > That process produced a massive list of 182,000 names, which Browning considered unreliable. The Fair Elections Legal Network, which is challenging the purge, noted that database matching is “notoriously unreliable” and “data entry errors, similar-sounding names, and changing information can all produce false matches.” Further, some voters may have naturalized since their driver’s license information was collected. > > Browning resigned in February. But Scott has pressed forward with his efforts to purge voters from the rolls based on the dubious list. [CBS Miami:](http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/05/24/groups-ask-florida-to-stop-voter-roll-purge/) > [@](#): > > **Groups Ask Florida To Stop Voter Roll Purge** > > May 24, 2012 4:15 PM > > MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A coalition of civil rights and voting organizations have asked the State of Florida to stop its push, directed by Governor Rick Scott, to remove non-U.S. citizens from the state’s voter rolls. > > The group sent a letter to Secretary of State Ken Detzner threatening a lawsuit if Florida doesn’t stop the planned purge. The coalition said federal law bans the state from removing voters from the rolls less than 90 days before a federal election. [Crooks & Liars:](http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ed-schultz-brings-national-attention-flori) > [@](#): > > May 25, 2012 04:00 AM > > **Ed Schultz Brings National Attention to Florida Voter Roll Purge** > > By Heather > > Anyone who follows this blog regularly may have already read Ken Quinnell’s report on Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to purge 180,000 Hispanics from the voting rolls in Florida ahead of the 2012 presidential election. This Thursday evening, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz thankfully decided to shine a national spotlight on the subject, hopefully before it’s too late for those who have received notices from the state to do something about it. > > \ > > The media continually talks about how close this election is going to be even though Mitt Romney’s numbers with Hispanics, women, and just about every group other than old white men is in the tank and they appear to me to be setting the public up already with their arguments to justifying another stolen election if that’s how things go down. > > If Mitt Romney somehow wins this election, watch for the media to blame low numbers of students and Hispanics voting on low enthusiasm, rather than acknowledging Republicans did their best to make sure both groups did not have the ability to vote at all. Interesting times. Gov. Scott, you asshole, did you really thing you were just going to get away with this? Did you think 2000 was already forgotten? Suck it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/6 "2012-05-28T01:23:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Florida Congressman Demands Gov. Rick Scott ‘Immediately Suspend’ Voter Purge.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/23/489511/exclusive-florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/) > > Go Deutch! 😃 Let’s not have [what happened in Florida in 2000](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Voter_roll_purge_in_the_2000_Florida_election) happen ever again. :mad: > > Anyway – how will this affect the voting in November? I don’t mean just in Florida, all the states are wrestling with this. My view is that if a voter is legitimate and votes regularly there is little risk of their being “purged”. If someone is given “walking around money” to vote for an occasional marquee election they are not part of the democratic debate. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/7 "2012-05-28T01:38:07Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > My view is that if a voter is legitimate and votes regularly there is little risk of their being “purged”. Based on what happened in 2000 and what is happening now, that is apparently not the case. The purge-risk depends on . . . entirely different factors. > [@JBGUSA](#): > > If someone is given “walking around money” to vote for an occasional marquee election they are not part of the democratic debate. 😕 Of course they are. Their vote is the same as yours, and should be. And what is a “marquee election”? And who is giving out this “walking around money”? IME, get-out-the-vote drives might offer a free ride to the polls, that’s it. And, of course, money given to a voter to vote a given way is wasted in a secret-ballot system; you have no way even to know, afterwards, how the voter voted. Eliminating both bribery and intimidation is the **point** of a secret ballot. ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/8 "2012-05-28T02:46:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Based on what happened in 2000 and what is happening now, that is apparently not the case. The purge-risk depends on . . . entirely different factors. And those factors are… [quote=BrainGlutton;15106621 😕 Of course they are. Their vote is the same as yours, and should be. And what is a “marquee election”? And who is giving out this “walking around money”? IME, get-out-the-vote drives might offer a free ride to the polls, that’s it. And, of course, money given to a voter to vote a given way is wasted in a secret-ballot system; you have no way even to know, afterwards, how the voter voted. Eliminating both bribery and intimidation is the **point** of a secret ballot.[/quote] I have no problem with free rides. But if money is given out in a homogenous polling area and the voting is more “diverse” than it “ought to be” there are ways are meting out consequences. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/9 "2012-05-28T02:52:23Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > And those factors are… [These.](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Voter_roll_purge_in_the_2000_Florida_election#Why_so_many_non-felons_were_.22scrubbed.22_from_the_voting_rolls) > [@](#): > > **Why so many non-felons were “scrubbed” from the voting rolls** > > Under orders from Harris’s office, DBT provided matches of anyone with a close name. Thus, for example, John Jackson is a black man who had served time in Texas, so Johnny Jackson Jr., a black man in Florida with the same birth date, was purged from the registration rolls. [6] DBT used lists of former felons that included names and birth dates and race, but counted as a “match” names that were only approximate. DBT specifically wrote Harris’s office to say that their name-match criteria would include a large number of nonfelons, and Harris’s office advised them in writing to lower the name-match criterion further to 85%. All told, DBT generated a list of 82,389 voters to purge from registries. [7] > > DBT subsequently tried to defend their lists by claiming they were 85% accurate. [8] But that would still mean that well over 10,000 mostly minority, poor, and Democratic Floridians were illegally disenfranchised — more than twenty times Bush’s margin of victory in the state. Plus, where verification was attempted, the accuracy of the list was nowhere near 85%. Officials in Leon County, Florida, tried to verify the 694 names on the list from Tallahassee and found only 34 to be a match—a 5% accuracy rate. [9] > > Robert E. Pierre reported in the Washington Post that responsibility for this faulty voter purge lies with Harris’s office, not DBT: _From the beginning, Database Technologies raised serious concerns that non-felons could be misidentified. … “Obviously, we want to capture more names that possibly aren’t matches,” said Emmett “Bucky” Mitchell, who headed the state purge effort, in a March 1999 e-mail to Database Technologies product manager Marlene Thorogood, who had warned him of possible mistakes. … Clay Roberts, director of the state’s division of elections, confirmed the policy. … “The decision was made to do the match in such a way as not to be terribly strict on the name.” “We warned them,” said James E. Lee, vice president of communications for the company. “The list was exactly what the state wanted. They said, ‘The counties will verify the information, so you don’t have to.’”_ [10] > [@JBGUSA](#): > > I have no problem with free rides. But if money is given out in a homogenous polling area and the voting is more “diverse” than it “ought to be” there are ways are meting out consequences. What ways? More to the point, WFT are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/10 "2012-05-28T02:54:27Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > And those factors are… > I have no problem with free rides. But if money is given out in a homogenous polling area and the voting is more “diverse” than it “ought to be” there are ways are meting out consequences. Who is giving money out? And to whom? Cite for any of this? And… are you the arbiter of what makes an area “more diverse than it ought to be”? If not you, then who decides this? How less diverse _should_ an area be before you deem that it is OK? It seems that you are accusing people of spreading money around areas with visible minority voters because they are more prone to vote Democrat. And that there will be “consequences” for this, presumably denying the people in these areas the right to vote. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/11 "2012-05-28T02:55:36Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > I have no problem with free rides. But if money is given out in a homogenous polling area and the voting is more “diverse” than it “ought to be” there are ways are meting out consequences. There is just so much wrong with this quote. Don’t they teach civics anymore? Fundamentals of a working democracy? So Rick Scott decided what a vote “ought to be,” then took it upon his administration to mete out the consequences. Great. Oh, wait. I have misread your post. You were actually jumping on the bandwagon to decry the 2004 Ohio results. ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/12 "2012-05-28T03:01:52Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Who is giving money out? And to whom? Cite for any of this? > > And… are you the arbiter of what makes an area “more diverse than it ought to be”? If not you, then who decides this? How less diverse _should_ an area be before you deem that it is OK? > > It seems that you are accusing people of spreading money around areas with visible minority voters because they are more prone to vote Democrat. And that there will be “consequences” for this, presumably denying the people in these areas the right to vote. What I’m saying is that if in a particular area money is given out the “donors” would expect, say, a 97% compliance rate. If the area splits and only 50% go to the “right” candidate, largesse and future opportunities to make money by voting the “right way” could be curtailed. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/13 "2012-05-28T03:08:04Z")
Here’s my question: Let’s say I’m a Florida voter, a citizen with no felonies, and I show up at the polls and they tell me I’ve been “purged.” Can’t I cast a provisional ballot and when all is said and done the investigation (in a close election) will reveal the truth and my vote will count? Isn’t that the whole purpose of the provisional ballot? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/14 "2012-05-28T03:18:19Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Here’s my question: Let’s say I’m a Florida voter, a citizen with no felonies, and I show up at the polls and they tell me I’ve been “purged.” Can’t I cast a provisional ballot and when all is said and done the investigation (in a close election) will reveal the truth and my vote will count? Isn’t that the whole purpose of the provisional ballot? [Nevertheless:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_ballot#Potential_Problems) > [@](#): > > Whether a provisional ballot is counted is contingent upon the verification of that voter’s eligibility. Many voters do not realize that the provisional ballot is not counted until 7–10 days after election so their vote does not affect the calling of the states to different candidates. > > A guarantee that a voter could cast a provisional ballot if he or she believes that they are entitled to vote was one of the guarantees of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. > > \ > > **Potential Problems** > > At their best, provisional ballots provide voters who would otherwise be turned away from the polls to have their votes counted, but at their worst, the offer of a provisional ballot can be “a way to brush off troublesome voters by letting them think they have voted.”[4] It is possible for parties to force certain voters to cast provisional ballots so they can suppress the vote total of an opponent being counted on election night. > > In the 2004 US Presidential Election, controversy arose out of arguments regarding the interpretation of the criteria for determining the eligibility of voters using provisional ballots. Many allege that these discrepancies of interpretations, particularly in Ohio, may have been a deciding factor in the outcome of the election. In the 2004 election, at least 1.9 million provisional ballots were cast, and 676,000 were never counted due to various states’ rules on counting provisional ballots.[5] > > Studies of the use of provisional ballots in the 2006 general election in the United States show that around 21% of provisional ballots were rejected, where the majority of rejected ballots were cast by registered voters and the majority of rejections were for reasons that were preventable.[6] > > Number of Provisional Ballots Not Counted in US Elections > > According to the Election Assistance Commission thousands of provisional ballots are not counted each election. > > _ **2004 US Election** _ > > In the 2004 US Election 35.5 percent of all provisional ballots cast were discarded for various reasons. This meant a total of 675,676 votes were not counted. See 2004 EAC report here. > > _ **2006 US Election** _ > > In the 2006 US Election 20.5 percent of all provisional ballots cast were discarded for various reasons. This meant a total of 170,872 votes which were cast provisionally were not counted. See 2006 EAC report here. > > **Reasons for rejection** > > The most common reason for rejection of provisional ballots is due to voters who have been purged off the voting rolls. 44 percent of those provisional ballots rejected in 2006 were due to this factor. And if your provisional ballot has been rejected for any of these reasons . . . not much you can do about it . . . not much chance you can even **find out** whether your ballot was counted or not. Also, in terms of [practical experience on the ground in 2008:](http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article881423.ece) > [@](#): > > TALLAHASSEE — After Florida’s 2000 election debacle, Congress thought it had found a way to avoid turning away voters whose qualifications were in question: allow them to cast a provisional ballot. > > But a record voter turnout this year, plus a new voter verification law, could lead to the casting of thousands of provisional ballots Tuesday. > > In any close races, that could delay election results for several days as county officials try to figure out which provisional ballots are valid and which ones aren’t. > > That prospect is prompting a rare revolt among nearly half of Florida’s election supervisors, who worry provisional ballots will overwhelm them. Against the wishes of Florida’s top election official, some county officials say they have the power to decide when some voters should receive a regular ballot versus a provisional one. > > “We’re trying to avoid all provisional ballots, at all costs,” Volusia County Supervisor Ann McFall said. “It’s a lot of extra work.” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/15 "2012-05-28T03:18:35Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > What I’m saying is that if in a particular area money is given out the “donors” would expect, say, a 97% compliance rate. If the area splits and only 50% go to the “right” candidate, largesse and future opportunities to make money by voting the “right way” could be curtailed. Again, what money is being given out? By who? To whom? ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/16 "2012-05-28T16:38:10Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Florida Congressman Demands Gov. Rick Scott ‘Immediately Suspend’ Voter Purge.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/23/489511/exclusive-florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/) > > Go Deutch! 😃 Let’s not have [what happened in Florida in 2000](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Voter_roll_purge_in_the_2000_Florida_election) happen ever again. :mad: > > Anyway – how will this affect the voting in November? I don’t mean just in Florida, all the states are wrestling with this. That’s nasty. I wonder whether there’s a felon out there somewhere with a name and date of birth somewhat close to mine that would get me purged in a purge-happy state. Living in NY, I’m not worried, but I certainly would be concerned if I moved to Florida. Considering how ID-happy the purge-happy states are, you’d think they’d get photo IDs of felons to match-up to photo IDs of voters. But noooooo . . . ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/17 "2012-05-28T17:21:20Z")
Re: provision ballots above…Most elections aren’t close enough to where provisional ballots make a difference anyways. If it does, the losing candidate will make damn sure that they are counted b/c that’s the only chance he has to win. If they don’t “count” in runaway elections it’s because they aren’t needed. It’s like the home team in baseball being ahead in the middle of the 9th and not having to bat in the bottom. They aren’t “cheated” out of a turn at bat, it’s just not necessary for the outcome to complete the task. Just like it isn’t necessary to argue over the provisional ballots when they aren’t necessary for the outcome. IIRC, when they don’t matter, provisional ballots are counted by default. So what if a person casting a provisional ballot knows (and how many people know this) that the news reports on election night don’t count provisional ballots? They count when they count, if you will, and nobody is wrongfully disenfranchised. Does my vote not “count” because my candidate lost by more than my one vote, even if it is included in the projection totals on election night? Is the only alternative to take no steps to ensure that ineligible voters don’t vote? It seems that the provisional ballot applies nicely to a situation where someone was purged in error. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/18 "2012-05-28T17:48:41Z")
> [@JBGUSA](#): > > What I’m saying is that if in a particular area money is given out the “donors” would expect, say, a 97% compliance rate. If the area splits and only 50% go to the “right” candidate, largesse and future opportunities to make money by voting the “right way” could be curtailed. What ARE you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/19 "2012-05-28T17:50:51Z")
Question about counting provisional ballots: what is the procedure for casting and then verifying a provisional ballot? Is casting a provisional ballot substantially substantively different than casting a regular ballot? That is, if I’m told I’m off the roles for the moment and the only difference is that I vote in a different machine or fill out a piece of paper, that’s neither substantially nor substantively different. The experience is virtually the same, isn’t it? The key (to me) is that while it may be emotionally different, the effort is not really different—I’m still casting my ballot. Perhaps more importantly, \*\*how are provisional ballots converted into official ballots? \*\*Where is the burden of proof? Do the parties send representatives to the registrar to oversee the process? Or am I expected to return to the polling place/registrar and somehow prove my eligibility? If this is the case, then sloppy purging of the roles, particularly if the given quotes and presumptions are true (intentional lack of accuracy with the burden on local communities coupled with the disparate impact on different racial demographics), equates to an unquestionable, intentional subversion of democracy. Whichever side and whenever it occurs, party before country is a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092/20 "2012-05-28T18:26:36Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > What ARE you talking about? He wants the best Congressmen money can buy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-congressman-demands-gov-rick-scott-immediately-suspend-voter-purge/623092.md?page=2)