The Justice Department is demanding that Florida stop purging its rolls of allegedly ineligible voters because the process has not been cleared under the federal Voting Rights Act, TPM is reporting.

The Justice Department says the continuing purge also violates the cut-off time stipulated by the National Voter Registration Act.

The notice came tonight in a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, TPM says.

The news comes after state officials earlier today admitted they might not be able to double-check whether up to 182,000 registered voters are U.S. citizens, the Associated Press reported.

Election officials had planned to use a federal immigration database to verify citizenship.

But local election supervisors complained that initial lists contained errors and had not been properly checked ahead of time.

Earlier today, Detzner sent a letter the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stating the state was still unable to access to the database. He asked Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano to help.

A Department of Homeland Security official said there are a "number of legal and operational challenges" to granting the state access.