The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a 5 page response to the Florida Secretary of State.  The DOJ letter focuses on the 90 day “quiet period” in the National Voter Registration Act that prohibits systemic purges and reminds Florida that the Homeland Security database only includes naturalized citizens and not those born in the U.S. and Florida had been on notice for at least eight months that it needed to provide additional detail to use the SAVE database.  The letters ends with “I have authorized the initiation of an enforcement action against Florida in federal court.”

Meanwhile, the Florida Secretary of State announced that the state had filed suit in the  U.S District Court for the Distrait of Columbia.  The suit claims that the Department of State has a statutory right of access to the SAVE (Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program System of Records) database and the Homeland Security department is preventing access.  The e-mails attached to the complaint outline some of the State’s plans for the data – including running a search on all of Florida’s almost 12 million voters (at a cost of at least 50 cents per voter) and then continually running checks on new applicants.  (Documents courtesy of the Miami Herald website.)

Courtesy of the Miami Herald, a federal lawsuit has been filed against the State challenging the voter purge that the DOJ and the Secretary of State have been exchanging letters over.

You can probably guess the tone of this letter by reading its title: “Florida’s Continuing Commitment to Protecting Citizen Voting Rights.”  The Florida Secretary of State disputes the DOJ’s analysis of the National Voter Registration Act and Voting Rights Act, asserts the Homeland Security Dept. is violating federal law, and challenges the DOJ to answer a list of questions.  Coverage from the Miami Herald (thanks for the letter copy) and the Tampa Bay Times.