Hood concedes voter count has glitches
The unwieldy task of verifying 47,000 `potential felons' is raising the ire of civil-rights groups.

By Bob Mahlburg | Tallahassee Bureau 
 
TALLAHASSEE Secretary of State Glenda Hood sought Tuesday to ease concerns that thousands of voters identified as "potential felons" could be barred from voting this year, but she conceded there are unexplained glitches in a list that is drawing legal fire from civil-rights groups.

Advocates fear the state is again conducting a flawed purge of voters, as it did before Florida's contested presidential election in 2000. Recent newspaper checks have found thousands of names apparently listed by mistake among the potential felons.

During an hourlong presentation and question-and-answer session, Hood and other top officials stressed that county election officials must still verify convictions among the more than 47,000 people on the database. They said election officials will "err on the side of the voter."

But Hood and other election officials couldn't explain how some people who got clemency and have been voting for decades still appear among names of potential felons, or why some people who received clemency before 1977 were still considered potential felons.

Officials also warned that some felons already granted clemency will have to re-register to vote and said other people may have to pay to have their fingerprints taken to prove their identity before they can cast another ballot.

A computer analysis by the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel last week compared the names on the Elections Division list with another list of more than 180,000 names of felons who have had their voting rights restored. It found more than 2,000 names on both. Of those, more than 350 were from the seven-county Central Florida area.

At the Tallahassee news conference, Hood and Elections Division chief Dawn Roberts said that even people granted executive clemency need to re-register before they can vote again. But state officials conceded that for some people it may be too late to re-register because of election rules. Roberts said county officials will be sensitive to such situations.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which said last week that forcing people to re-register violates federal voting-rights law, threatened Tuesday to file suit over the issue.

"I would much prefer that the state do the right thing and let people be treated like full citizens and not go through the hurdle of re-registering," said Howard Simon, ACLU of Florida executive director.

Hood spokeswoman Nicole de Lara said Hood has received a formal legal demand from the ACLU but had no comment.

Hood also confirmed the state Office of Executive Clemency failed to exclude some people granted executive clemency before 1977 in identifying possible felons. "They'll be forwarding those names," Hood said.

Hood would not say whether she was bothered by the apparent oversight, adding: "I'm not here to give personal opinions."

State law-enforcement officials said people mistakenly identified as possible felons might need to pay to get fingerprints to verify their identities. The individual cost would be up to each county sheriff, an FDLE official said.

And, Roberts conceded, officials still have not finished restoring voting rights to some voters mistakenly purged in the last presidential election four years ago.

"We believe the supervisors are trying to work through that," Roberts said. "We don't have the right to tell supervisors how to do their jobs."

Overall, Hood said she has confidence in the state's election system, but she said the process of purging felons from voter rolls is "very complex and very confusing."

Hood repeatedly stressed that county election officials not her office are ultimately responsible for screening voters and protecting their rights.

County election officials are required by state law to verify names of suspected felons, send registered letters notifying them that they are being ped from rolls and advertise names in a local paper if they don't respond.

"Instead of taking responsibility for a list that could cause an Election Day disaster, the Division of Elections is shifting accountability and leaving Florida voters in the dark," said Sharon Lettman-Pacheco of People For the American Way Foundation. "We will work to keep the spotlight on and to make sure every eligible voter gets to cast a ballot and that every vote is counted."

In Washington, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, filed a bill to require any state that purges felons from voter lists to follow a uniform federal standard that includes notifying the individual and allowing an appeal.

And in another election dispute, the ACLU, Common Cause and other groups said they would announce a lawsuit today challenging a state rule that bans manual recounts on touch-screen voting machines. De Lara said she would not comment.