List of illegal voters in Florida shrinks

State: Names of non-citizen registered voters unlikely to be remved before Election Day

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A new list of suspected non-citizen registered voters has been submitted to Florida's Supervisor of Elections after a federal judge ruled it was OK for the state to remove voters who had registered illegally.

The state said it will work to identify more illegally registered voters, but would likely be unable to remove their names before Election Day.

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The latest list contains 198 names, far fewer than the 1700 once suspected of registering to vote illegally. The list was pared down using a Homeland Security database.

"We found that one hundred and ninety-eight potential non-citizens did have current information listed in the SAVE database, that we felt reliable enough to send two supervisors where they can began the removal process," said Chris Cate, a spokesman for the Secretary of State.

Local supervisors have sent letters to the voters, telling them they have 30 days to respond before they are removed from the roll.

Jose Suarez from the Service Employees International Union, which took the purge to court and lost, said a ruling against them doesn't make it right.

"And we shouldn't make a group of citizens because of their last name or where they may have naturalized from jump through special hoops," Suarez said.

Gov. Rick Scott has repeatedly said that the purge isn't about politics.

"This is not a partisan issue," Scott said.

But the governor penned a fundraising letter from the Republican Party that criticized Chicago for early voting. The governor said that Obama is from Chicago and that his "liberal allies" support illegal voters.

Democrats have been quick to point out that the letter was sent around the same time that Republicans got involved in a separate voter registration scandal.

"It's shockingly hypocritical and Governor Scott and Republican Party of Florida should come clean," said David Bergstrom, spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party.