Florida Joins GOP Trend Litigating Migrant Voting Concerns (1)

Florida election officials can’t tell if some voters on their rolls are immigrants without the right to vote, the state said in a lawsuit demanding more data from federal officials.

In some circumstances—the number of cases Florida didn’t disclose—investigators using state and federal databases couldn’t determine if a registered voter should be denied a ballot. Federal immigration officials must help the state by turning over special identifiers for immigrants, if they exist, Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) said in the state’s complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida Wednesday.

“Without further information from DHS, Florida is unable to fulfill its statutory duties to ensure the integrity of its elections and maintain accurate voter registration records,” Moody said. “Florida’s inability to carry out its statutory obligations inflicts sovereign injury upon the state.”

The suit is the latest development in a series of Republican secretaries of state and attorneys general moving to clear up voter rolls as well as message their concerns over the potential for immigrant voting in the November elections.

Non-citizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections. An extensive investigation into state voting fraud prosecutions by a team of Bloomberg and Bloomberg Law reporters in 2021 found these incidents existed but were exceedingly rare.

The current system immigration officials use to share data with states called the “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” program is “the most secure and efficient way to reliably verify the citizenship or immigration status” for “voter registration,” Ur Mendoza Jaddou, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a letter rejecting Florida’s demand for different information.

Litigating in ‘Quiet Period’

As the run-up to the 2024 election intensifies courts are seeing fast-paced litigation over this issue in red states. But states bent on showing dedication to election security are likely to run up against a federal deadline.

Federal law has a 90-day “quiet” period built into election laws which prohibit states from doing mass purging of their roles in the weeks leading up to federal races.

On Wednesday a federal court sided with the US Department of Justice and stopped Alabama from trimming its rolls. That followed another decision Oct. 14 in which a federal judge stopped Arizona from imposing an extra citizenship-check by county election officials.

Moody’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment clarifying how many voters the state couldn’t verify, and why the state would file its case in the “quiet period” ahead of an election when federal courts would be likely unable to provide the data the state seeks.

Jaddou said in her letter that the information Florida asked for—a separate database—isn’t used for confirming voter registration data because it’s less reliable. In the complaint, the state of Florida said it believes the federal government can provide a reliable and distinct tracking number for migrants, but didn’t mention what database this would be in.

The state “is calling on the federal government to dismantle the barriers blocking the states from obtaining critical information needed to prevent non-citizens from voting in our elections,” Florida Secretary of State Cory Byrd (R) said in a statement.

The case is Florida v. Dep’t Homeland Sec., N.D. Fla., No. 3:24-cv-00509, complaint filed 10/16/24.