Florida’s local election supervisors reacted with skepticism Wednesday to a push by state authorities to remove thousands of potential non-U.S. citizens from the voting rolls, only months before the 2012 elections in which the coveted swing state will play a key role.
The supervisors, meeting at their annual summer conference, peppered state election officials with questions about the list of more than 2,600 registered voters who have been identified as being in Florida legally but ineligible to vote. That list was sent to supervisors recently, but state officials have also said there may be as many as 182,000 registered voters who may not be citizens.
The questions about voter eligibility surface as the state continues its months-long efforts to scrub the rolls, including asking supervisors to remove more than 53,000 dead people discovered by comparing voter rolls to federal Social Security files. This was the first time the state checked the files. It was allowed under a controversial election law that passed the GOP-controlled Legislature last year.
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