Q: What is Florida going to do to in response to the Department of Justice’s letter? Florida  will continue to protect the rights of citizens to vote. That includes,  but is not limited to, ensuring the voter rolls are accurate, and  forwarding credible and reliable information whenever such information  is discovered. Florida is also  continuing to demand access to the federal SAVE database, which is the  most accurate database available for verifying voter citizenship status.

Q: Why is the Florida Department of State removing voters from the voter registration rolls? Florida’s  Department of State isn’t removing anyone from the voter registration  rolls. Only independent elections supervisors in each county may remove  voters from the voter rolls. But Florida elections officials have an  obligation to protect the right of eligible voters to cast a ballot, and  that includes preventing non-citizens from participating in an  election. County elections officials are required under state and  federal law to remove ineligible voters (such as non-U.S. citizens) from the voter database whenever credible and reliable information is presented to them.

Q: Why is Florida acting now? The  process to remove non-U.S. citizens from Florida’s voter database  actually began in Spring 2011. A few months later, in September 2011,  Florida elections officials asked the U.S. Department of Homeland  Security (DHS) for access to the Systematic Alien Verification for  Entitlements (SAVE) database. After waiting several months to gain  access to this database, Florida initiated the process to remove  ineligible voters based on the best information available to the state.  The states of Colorado, Michigan, and North Carolina have also requested  access to the SAVE system for a similar purpose. But the federal  government has yet to grant access to the system.

Q: What is the process Florida is using to identify non-citizen voters? Florida  is currently waiting for the federal government to grant access to the  SAVE database in order to verify that non-citizens will be removed from  the voter rolls ahead of the 2012 election. Without access to this data,  or some new evidence from other sources (such as court records or other  official documents) that can identify non-citizens, the federal  government is preventing Florida from identifying and removing non-U.S.  citizens from the voter rolls.

When  a state motor vehicle and driver database containing citizenship  information was matched with a list of registered voters, Florida  identified more than 182,000 potential non-citizens listed as registered  voters. Without access to the federal government’s SAVE database,  Florida elections officials refined the data using state information and  sent an initial list of 2,600 potential non-citizens to county election  supervisors for further review and action.

County  elections supervisors have a legal obligation to remove non-citizens  from the voter rolls whenever presented with credible and reliable  evidence, however, each county supervisor has the independent authority  to determine how best to proceed with the information presented to them.  County supervisors have acted responsibly. To date, there are zero  reported cases of anyone being wrongly removed from the system.

find more questions and answers here:  http://www.flgov.com/2012/06/06/frequently-asked-questions-about-pr...=