Although the Justice Department ordered Florida to stop its voter suppression tactics, the Republican administration says it has no intention of obeying.
Federal authorities say that the state is obliged to get justice department approval for changes to its voting laws under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was introduced to end practices that prevented African Americans from exercising their democratic right in many southern states.
The justice department also said that the purge appears to violate a federal law stopping voters being removed from the rolls less than 90 days before an election. Florida holds primaries in mid-August. But Chris Cate, a spokesman for the Florida secretary of state, said the purge will continue.
Florida is a key state in the Presidential election this year. In 2000, George W Bush won the White House after taking Florida by a majority of just 537 votes. More than 2,600 registered voters, mostly Democrats, are planned to be removed from the electoral roll. Although citizens can reapply, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to get the process finished in time to be allowed to vote in the fall election.
Source: The Guardian
[...] their earlier claims that they’d ignore federal law, Florida’s governor Rick Scott has decided to postpone [...]