The 2012 voter purge was like a bad joke – using unreliable government databases, the state of Florida tried to remove people from the voter rolls in the name of fighting voter fraud, but with no actually evidence of voter fraud to be found. The result was a disaster, with elections supervisors describing it as “embarrassing,” “sloppy,” and “disgusting.” Now, to add insult to injury, the state is planning to use the same erroneous databases from last year to make Florida elections the laughing stock of the country again.  We don’t trust it, and neither should you: if you or someone you know wrongfully receives notice that you are being removed from the voter rolls, contact the ACLU of Florida for help.

On Friday, October 4^th, the “Project Integrity” tour – the statewide series of roundtables with Secretary of State Ken Detzner pitching the purge to Supervisors of Elections (SOEs) and voters - made its second stop in Jacksonville. I attended to see how the state planned to justify the purge after last year’s failure. Like me, the SOEs in North Florida seemed skeptical; as SOEs from across the state proved to be at future stops on the tour.

As a matter of course, all SOE Offices conduct cleanup of the rolls, removing persons who are deceased, have moved to another county or state, and who are ineligible to vote due to past felony convictions or mental incompetency. The purge promoted by “Project Integrity” seeks to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, which seems like a reasonable goal. But not only has the administration been unable to identify the problem they are attempting to solve, but their process leaves too much opportunity for error to make it a reliable option.

The process involves the use of two databases to verify whether or not a would-be voter is a U.S. Citizen: the Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) from the FL Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program. There continue to be serious concerns about the reliability of the information available from both of these databases as well as concerns about the cost of using these unreliable resources, which were never intended to be used for checking someone’s eligibility to vote.

But what struck me most about the “Project Integrity” tour was that, although the promotional information leading up to the tour described the tour’s purpose “to protect the integrity of Florida’s voter rolls” and “transparency,” at the close of the event in Jacksonville and at the end of all the scheduled tour stops, these critical questions remained unanswered by Secretary Detzner’s office:

1. How many people were purged from the rolls in 2012?
2. How are SOEs expected to pay for contracting with DHS to use the SAVE database?
3. How will SOEs fund the public education campaign necessary to make sure citizens wrongly identified by the process know their rights and do not lose their right to vote.
4. Why should a naturalized citizen’s be required to ensure their immigration information is current in a database?
5. Why should a naturalized citizen have to jump through extra hoops to participate in our democracy simply because the administration chooses to rely on information it knows might be out of date.
6. Are there any documented cases of non-citizens being charged with illegally voting?

In short, Secretary Detnzer couldn’t show evidence that there is actually a problem they are attempting to solve, nor could his office answer why we should expect this year to be any different from the last nor why citizens should be trust the same unreliable databases.

Last year, the ACLU of Florida sued to stop the voter purge and require the state to ask the federal government to review the purge plan to see if it was discriminatory. That lawsuit was dismissed after the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder that gutted the Voting Rights Act. Now we no longer have that legal tool to stop the purge from going forward. But that doesn’t mean you don’t still have rights.

If you or someone you know wrongfully receives notice that you are being removed from the voter rolls, contact the ACLU of Florida for help.

Fair elections are under attack across the country, now more so than ever after the Shelby County decision. Defending democracy takes more than paying lip-service to “Integrity.”

Soyara Alcalá

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of hosting the screening of "Amores de Mi Vida,” organized by the ACLU of Florida, an audiovisual project where members and supporters of the greater Miami Hispanic LGBT community shared stories of the loves of their lives. When I was invited to participate, I did not hesitate for a second, since I can remember I have actively defended the rights of the LGBT community. This event highlighted the extraordinary qualities of each of the participants, was an audiovisual project that celebrated love in all its forms, as narrated by 26 members of the South Florida community.

Listening to the stories of people including Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, State Representative Jose Javier Rodriguez, Vice-Mayor of the City of Hallandale Beach Alex Lewy, among many others, we were immediately moved by the unifying power of love and respect.

The speakers expressed their love of the music and food of their heritage or the love of a parent that helped them through tough times or the love of family; all of the stories showed the importance of love in all of our lives and that having our love respected by others is a common human value.

It reminded me of a my belief in what I call “education reform” – I’m not talking about changes to our school system, but changes we can all make in our homes to do away with misinformation, divisive education and culture judging of what we may mistakenly determine is right or wrong.

I have a 17 year old daughter and my husband and I have been educated in love, responsibility and mutual respect. In my household we have never "judged” a relationship between LGBT people. For us what matters is the essence, the value as a human being, the way personal and professional achievements and accomplished .

Unfortunately we lived in a society that judges, criticizes and punishes; prejudices come from the training we get when we are children. If we grow up with a fixed idea of discrimination against the LGBT community, and educate our children by pointing fingers, we will continue to have poor results and we will not achieve the progress we want to see. Respect for the rights of all must be demonstrated in each and every one of our actions with a focus on the causes we believe deserve attention.

We are beginning to see the fruits of this change. On 26 June this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA"), which stated that the federal government would refuse to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples, was unconstitutional.

After the decision of the Supreme Court, several federal agencies announced information about historical changes in benefits and federal programs throughout the nation. It was an important decision, and it showed that the kinds of love that were on display in “Amores de Mi Vida” are becoming more respected in our culture.

Therefore finally, if we all spread the word, supporting just causes that unify rather than separate or label people , we are contributing to a society that for many years will embrace diversity without distinction of race, creed, religion or sexual preference.

Soria Alcala is a Miami-based Spanish-language entertainment journalist from Venezuela.
@sorayaalcala
estilos@sorayaalcala.com
www.columnaestilos.com

In 2011, we saw a triple play of voter suppression with redistricting, HB 1355 (dubbed the Voter Suppression Act), and regressive changes to Florida’s Clemency Rules. The Florida legislature is accountable for the first two and to their credit, they did try to fix some of the mess that they created. But, Florida is not off the hook yet with disenfranchisement.

It saddens me to say that Florida ranks high on the list of states that disenfranchise individuals indefinitely after they have returned to the community. And as a result, our state’s denial of voting rights for people with past felony convictions is about to go under the international human rights microscope.

 In 2011, the Clemency Board consisting of Governor Scott, Pam Bondi, Jeff Atwater, and Adam Putnam foolishly decided that it is not enough that returning citizens face major challenges when they are released from prison, they decided to make it harder for them to get their civil rights restored and thereby harder to fully participate in the democratic process. Now, a returning citizen must wait five to seven years to apply to get their civil rights restored.  That’s not all; it can take an additional two to five years for applications to be processed!  In the meantime, they have lost their most basic right in our democracy – the right to vote.

There are many collateral consequences for individuals who have a past felony conviction. They lose certain occupational licenses, they often can’t get housing, get governmental loans, or get a job.  This is a recipe for despair recidivism – desperate people returning to crime because our society has closed off all other options to them. The impact ripples out to encompass their family and community.

There are 5.85 million individuals who are disenfranchised nationally because of past felony convictions. Among those are over 1.54 million Floridians. These are people who are unable to vote because when you commit a felony in Florida, you lose your civil rights: the right to vote, to run for office and to serve on a jury.  You heard right: over 1.54 million.  This is a human rights violation.

There is another dimension to the problem of disenfranchisement in Florida: African Americans are disproportionately impacted.  23% of African Americans of voting age – nearly one in four -- have lost the right to vote. Here is how Florida ranks relative to other poorly performing states: Florida (23%), Kentucky (22%), and Virginia (20%).

This human rights violation is about to make Florida – and the entire nation – face serious international scrutiny.  This month, the U.S. was scheduled to appear before the U.N. Human Rights Committee to review whether or not our country is in compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), an international human rights treaty. I was asked to travel to Geneva to speak before the committee and report on Florida’s disfranchisement of people with past felony convictions and how the problem was exacerbated by the Scott administration’s 2011 actions.

Because of the federal government shutdown this month, the review was rescheduled for March 2014. It is not too late for the Clemency Board to right a major wrong for its citizens and keep voting rights in Florida from becoming an international embarrassment for the United States.

Recently, Virginia moved in the right direction to re-enfranchise Virginians who had their civil rights taken away by a similar process.  It is long overdue for Florida to support reintegration of returning citizens by restoring their civil rights.

If I had gone to Geneva for the U.S.’s ICCPR review, I would have said all of this and more. I wish that I could report otherwise. And now, the unexpected delay has given our state more time to right this wrong. Join me in telling Florida’s Clemency Board that they must release the vote!