'We're at risk of disenfranchising tens of thousands of Florida voters,' Deutch said. Deutch: Fla. purge 'brazen ploy'

Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat opposed to Gov. Rick Scott’s controversial attempt to purge thousands of people from the state’s voter rolls, is blasting the Republican governor for engaging in a “brazen political ploy.”

“Because of this brazen political ploy, we’re at risk of disenfranchising tens of thousands of Florida voters,” Deutch said Monday on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “In a state which has a history not of voter fraud but of not making votes count with very close elections, that’s a horrible decision which really is meant to suppresses voter turnout and to suppress the vote.”


Deutch, who said he recently met a World War II veteran that received a letter from the state accusing him of not being a U.S. citizen, accused Scott of trying to suppress voters for political reasons.

“Why is it that they’re creating this image of voter fraud run wild when in fact it’s the Scott administration’s position that will disenfranchise tens of thousands of legitimate voters?” the congressman said. “What Gov. Scott has engaged in and what’s happening around the country, frankly, is election fraud meant to suppress the vote.”

Florida’s Division of Elections has identified some 180,000 potential noncitizens in conjunction with Scott’s attempt to clear noneligible voters from the state’s voter rolls.

Last week, the Justice Department got involved in the controversy, with the chief lawyer of the DOJ’s Voting Rights division writing a letter to Florida’s secretary of state demanding an explanation on why noncitizens are being purged from the state’s voter rolls just months before the 2012 election.

This article tagged under: Florida

Ted Deutch