Officials looking into non-citizen Florida voters

The Daily Beast pored through 30 years of voting data to find out which states have the most passionate voters and, thus, are the most political.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Voters beware. A new voter purge effort will look for any ineligible voters, and opponents say the state is continuing to do what it can to suppress the minority vote.

For more than a decade, Florida has been at ground zero for long lines, requiring identification and attempts to purge voting rolls. Secretary of State Ken Detzner says his goal is someone doesn't vote who shouldn't.

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"I hear consistently, 100 percent of the time from voters that they don't want individuals on our voter rolls that are ineligible," said Detzner.

Detzner just finished a statewide tour meeting with county elections supervisors to look at purging non-citizen Florida voters. Opponents say the state is wasting time and money on something that is a moot issue.

"It's inappropriate," said Allison Tant of the Florida Democratic Party. "It is politically motivated and its going to be another disaster."

Tant says the last time voters were purged, minorities were on the receiving end of it.

"Sixty percent of the people who were knocked off voter rolls with the last election were Hispanic or African American," Tant said.

The purge will be checked by at least two Division of Elections workers before being verified by a federal database called the "Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements," commonly known as SAVE.

A time frame hasn't been announced for the process, although elections officials will start matching a very small-batch basis -- comparing a person's driver's license with other federal information to see if they are eligible voters.

"We need to be able to provide credible and reliable information and documentation," Detzner said.

Detzner says he is not being pressured by any other state officials to start the purge, but he reports to Gov. Rick Scott.

The SAVE database wasn't available to Florida when the state was working to last purge non-citizens votes.