so far, florida has shown defiance. on friday, a spokesperson to secretary of state ken detsner. told the huffington post, we re committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot. we re not going to give up efforts to make sure florida rolls are accurate. the systematic removal of thousands of people from its rolls without doj approval seemingly violates the voting rights act of 1965, hence of smackdown from the doj. this is not the first time florida has denied residents the right to vote. the nonpartisan brendan center estimates that florida wrongfully disenfranchised 12,000 qualified voters before the 2,000 election decided by a marge of of 537 votes. only after the election was over did florida admit its effort was flawed. a two-year effort to eliminate tens of thousands of
from the voter rolls. all this just months before the presidential election. and in a state where the bush v. gore fight in the 2000 election wound up being decided by a margin of just 537 votes. david rifkin is a constitutional law attorney and former white house counsel under presidents reagan and george h.w. bush. david, thank you very much for being here. florida decided it would clean up the voter rolls. try to get dead people off and noncitizens off in advance of the big election. eric holder s justice department writes florida and says, knock it off. you re in violation potentially voting rights act which says you can t do voter roll maintenance 90 days before the general election. their primary is august 14th. he is saying they re violating federal law. does he have a point? he doesn t have much of a point, megyn, florida has been asking for close to ten months. the department of homeland
and we don t even have confirmation on the person that he s referring to. ever cast a vote. we know there were 60 cases out of eight million votes cast. so are we talking big numbers here? no. if you want to know why governor rick scott and the republicans are trying to get the people off the roles in florida, you need to look at numbers on the program. consume. this 537. why does that sound familiar? oh, yeah. that guy. that s the certified margin of victory for george w. bush in florida back in the 2000 election. the brennan center says more than 12,000 eligible florida voters were kept from voting in 2000, 12,000 people not allowed to vote. thrown off the roles in 2000. here s another number i want you to consume. 61,550. not very many. that s rick scott s margin of victory in the 2010 florida
will be blocked by rick scott s sudden interest in birth certificates? in 2000, in the final official vote count, only 537 votes separated george w. bush and al gore. joining me now, congressman ted deutsch who represents florida s 9th district, u.s. citizen, maureen russo, who received the letter informing her she had to prove her citizenship. thank you very much for joining me tonight. i want to read the part of the letter that you receiveded from the board of supervises. it says the broward county supervisor of elections office has received information from the state of florida that you are not a united states citizen. however you are registered to vote. if you agree with this
from the state that gave us a 537 margin vote victory in the year 2000 and trying to revoke voting rights. what could possibly go wrong? joining us now is michael waltman. thanks very much for your time. nice to have you here. great to be with you. having studied voting rights cases all around the country and over time, what do you think is the motivation for what s going on in florida right now, and what do you think is the outcome? it s true for election fiasco buffs, the question is what s going to be the next florida? and what do you know, florida. this comes on top of many other problems with the way we run elections and things that have sought to kick people off the rolls or make it harder for people to vote. the problem with this massive purge, and as you said it s 180,000 people.