Florida Told to Open Voter List 

By Jacob Ogles 03:23 PM Jul. 01, 2004 PT

ORLANDO A Florida Circuit Court judge said Thursday that a list of felons to be purged from Florida's voter rolls must be made available to anybody that wants a copy, handing a victory to media organizations that had sought copies from the state but were refused.

The ruling by Judge Nikki Clark came in a lawsuit filed by CNN in May. The news network said it wanted the list in order to verify its accuracy and to prevent the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters. Critics suspect many legitimate voters were not allowed to vote in the 2000 presidential election because of inaccuracies in these lists. 
 
"The Division of Elections is hereby ordered to immediately open the suspected felons list for public inspection and permit the plaintiff and interveners to copy and photograph the list," Clark wrote in a summary judgment. State officials said they would not appeal the ruling.

Department of State officials previously said anybody in the public could look at the list, but only political entities such as candidates or political parties could obtain a copy, and those who had the list could only use it for campaign purposes. After being denied a list, CNN filed suit and was joined by the First Amendment Foundation, ACLU and numerous Florida media outlets.

The list contains the names of 47,000 felons who are registered to vote, but may not be eligible to have that right. Florida is among seven states where felons released from prison don't automatically have voting rights restored upon completion of sentence. They still must re-register to vote, according to state law.

In the lawsuit, the state cited a 2001 law that protects the state's Central Voter Database from being copied. State lawmakers said the list should not be public because it would violate the state constitution's privacy clause.

But Clark said that law was unconstitutional, and the Florida Legislature illegally passed the 2001 statute without showing any public benefit.

"The court cannot and will not speculate what the public necessity might be, nor can the court construe or imply the public necessity from the language of the statute itself," Clark wrote.

CNN attorney Gregg Thomas said the ruling would make the felon list available to anybody, but was unsure if the rest of the database would be public as well. Secretary of State Glenda Hood said the entire statute, which also protects voter registration information and other election-related materials, may be void because of the ruling.

"We caution all those who view this information that this is a list of potential matches, not a final list," Hood said. "The Department of State has worked closely with the NAACP to develop a redundant and rigorous process to protect the rights of all eligible voters."

Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, said it was important the list be made available for verification, especially considering Florida's election history.

"There's a primary election coming up in just two months in Florida, and of course, the general election in November," Neas said. "We want to help every voter in Florida cast a vote that counts this election year."

George Bush won Florida's 25 electoral votes in 2000 by just 537 votes over Democrat Al Gore. That year, then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris hired a private firm to purge felons from voting. Hundreds of voters claimed to have been wrongfully removed from the rolls, possibly altering the outcome of the election.