Florida Faces Election Fracas 

By Jacob Ogles   02:00 AM Jun. 14, 2004 PT

Thousands of eligible Florida voters may be removed from the rolls in this year's election because of a faulty database aimed at convicted felons. Despite protests from critics and nervous election supervisors, the state will continue with plans to implement the system.

Convicted felons are not allowed to vote in Florida unless granted clemency, but before 2000 there was little enforcement of the law. That year, then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris hired DBT Online to provide a database of felons to be purged from the rolls. But the list contained the names of many people who should not have lost their voting rights. Many supervisors refused to use the list, but others did. 
   
 After George Bush won the state by a mere 537 votes, and with it the presidency, the felon list became a subject of national controversy and numerous lawsuits. A study by the Palm Beach Post showed more than 1,100 voters had been wrongfully turned away from the polls.

Florida Department of State officials promise the new database, assembled entirely by public entities with state records, will be more accurate with added precautions. County election supervisors in all 67 counties will be responsible for verifying every name as a convicted felon, and those stripped of rights must be notified before the elections so they may challenge the finding.

"We have developed much more stringent matching material on the list," said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the Division of Elections. "We run each name through a whole series of algorithms now. If a name doesn't meet a certain threshold it is not purged."

But voter advocacy groups remain concerned about the list being unrolled so close to this year's elections. "Here we go again," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way. "Why the rush to take more people off of the voting rolls when people who should not have been removed in 1999 and 2000 haven't yet been reinstated?"

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University released a study Tuesday suggesting that 25,585 ex-felons may be on the purge list despite being granted clemency.

Supervisors are now at work confirming more than 47,000 names on the list, but warn it could be a laborious task. "This will take a lot of effort," said Lake County election supervisor Emogene Stegall, who plans to confirm each name herself. "They were serious when they said the burden is on the supervisors."

Stegall refused to use the list in 2000, but state law requires action on her part this year.

Officials predict thousands of hours will go into confirmation of names, even if the validity of the list is never challenged. Challenges, however, are almost certain.

Leon County election supervisor Ion Sancho said more than 10 percent of the names of voters in his county may be incorrect, but it will take a lengthy procedure to resolve issues. All voters in the database must be verified and notified before being purged from registration rolls. Those who still claim to be on the list in error can notify the elections office and challenge the purge in court.

But it remains difficult to know exactly what percentage of names is erroneous. Few outside entities have been able to obtain a copy of the names because of laws regarding voter registration books. The purge list is considered a part of the Central Voter Database, which has statutory exemptions from the state's public records laws. Anybody can look at the list of names, but only specific political entities can have a copy.

"The way the law is written, if you memorize all of the names, then leave and write them down, that would be a violation," Nash said. While such recollection skill seems unlikely, some legal experts say that law sounds unconstitutional.

Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation, said while voter registration books fall under the "look-but-don't-copy" law, the purge list should not. "We do not want a list of registered voters," she said. "We want the list of felons that should be purged from rolls. That is not the same thing." 
 
A law written in the early 20th century, before the state adopted its Government-in-the-Sunshine Law, protects registration books. But a 2001 law, passed in the aftermath of the 2000 election, protects the database. Petersen said that will be an important distinction in the court challenge of the law.

CNN has filed a lawsuit against the state that seeks to abolish the 2001 law and get a copy of the purge list. The news agency argues that the law is not necessary for "achieving a compelling government interest."

Petersen's group has filed a motion-of-intervention on the side of CNN, and Florida Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson has filed a friend-of-court brief as well.

Interestingly, Nelson is among those who can get a copy of the list. Candidates for office, political action committees and political parties are all allowed a copy under the 2001 law. In his brief, Nelson said such a law creates a "special class of organizations" privy to the list. "The list should be open to the public, because of the potential for mistakes," Nelson said.

Florida Republican state Sen. Anna Cowin, chairwoman of the Florida Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, said political organizations and candidates need access to the list for campaign purposes. The same groups may get copies of voter rolls, which can be used to send out campaign literature.

But the law does not allow the list to be used for non-political purposes, and it forbids the distribution of the list.

Should the voter database become public record, Cowin said lawmakers would have to consider whether that violated the state constitution's privacy clause. "You might run afoul," she said "There would certainly have to be a debate about the privacy clause. Whether releasing the names would violate that or not, I don't know. I think it would have to be decided by the courts."

Cowin and other officials said the purge list could be reconstructed using the same method as the Division of Elections. A list of potential felons could be obtained from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and cross-referenced against registered voters. But FDLE officials said they would charge $23 per name, creating a potential cost of millions.

Some of the organizations that are privvy to the information may still try and argue releasing the list to the public is a political purpose, but none have done so yet. Florida Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox said his group will be "doing everything within its power to ensure that Floridians have their votes counted for the November 2004 election."

If the courts are to solve the conflict, they may need to act quickly. Florida officials are nervous about another election fiasco following the hanging chads of 2000 and closed polls in 2002. The felon list is quickly becoming a hot issue in this election year. And with the president's brother Jeb Bush still in the Governor's Mansion, elections issues promise to stay heated in the Sunshine State.