Worried voters trying to unregister

Trump voter-roll request spurs effort

TALLAHASSEE — Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Michael Ertel got 15 calls from voters wanting to “unregister” to vote after the state said it would comply with part of a federal commission’s request for voters’ personal data.

Ultimately, he convinced all who called to stay on the voter rolls. He says concerns over personal data being given to the federal panel are overblown because the state is only giving what is already available to the public.

“You can’t pick and choose which public-records requests you comply with because you’re not sure about what the person’s going to do with the information,” Ertel said.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Thursday wrote to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, saying the state couldn’t give partial Social Security numbers, drivers license information, criminal histories

or personal data for police officers, judges and prosecutors because such information was exempt from Florida’s public records laws.

He said the state will give the commission voters’ names, addresses, date of birth and political party affiliation. It will also provide voter histories — if they voted, and whether they voted in person on Election Day, by early voting or by mail — but not for whom they voted.

That information is already available to anyone who asks for it. Florida will give the data to the commission based on the voters on the rolls as of June 30, so rescinding voter registration would be useless anyway.

“It’s too late, you’re on it. And don’t deregister, that’s insane,” said Matthew Isbell, a Tallahassee-based Democratic political consultant. “Your data is already out there. And you don’t like it? Guess what? I’ve got a May file and an April file that has you on it.”

Ertel said elections officials use the data from voters’ registration forms — names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers — to check for citizenship. Addresses are used to see which elections a voter is qualified to vote in, such as which congressional districts and cities they live in.

Political parties and consultants obtain much of that information — but not Social Security numbers — to

target voters with ads during election season.

“Every campaign these days is using the voter file,” Isbell said. “They’re using it to build a list of who is early votes, who’s voted in the past, who’s a Democrat, who’s a Republican.”

Democrats, though, remain wary of what the commission and the Trump administration will do with the information from the states once they get it.

All three declared Democratic candidates for governor — Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham and Winter Park businessman Chris King — called on Gov. Rick Scott not to release at least some of the information to the commission over concerns it will be used to remove voters from the rolls.

“Ultimately, it’s about legitimizing this commission that we feel is based on pretty fraudulent claims [of voter fraud],” said Gillum spokesman Geoff Burgan. “We don’t know what [Trump’s] administration is capable of.”

Ertel, a Republican, thinks both parties will try to take advantage of the commission’s request.

“Political organizations never let a crisis go to waste, and this is a crisis of confidence in the system,’’ he said. “This is going to be a fundraising tool for a lot of politicians and so-called nonpartisan organizations.”

Florida Democrats are especially wary of any voter information being used to kick voters off the rolls because of Scott’s previous efforts to check the voter

rolls. In the lead up to the 2012 election, Scott’s review found an initial 180,000 suspicious voters but ended up removing just 85 voters from the roster.

Using data from the states to crosscheck information to look for dead voters, voters registered in more than one state and voters who aren’t U.S. citizens could produce many instances of potential voter fraud that is actually innocent behavior.

For instance, voters who move to a different state but don’t inform their previous supervisor of elections will appear registered to vote in two states, but that doesn’t mean they voted in both states. Because Florida attracts so many transplants, snowbirds and retirees, it’s likely the state has plenty of voters registered in another state.

“When you move from New York to Florida, the top of your priority list is not to contact the New York board of elections and say, ‘Hey I’m no longer here, I live in Florida now,’” Ertel said.

If the commission were to post a list of voters improperly registered, he said that’s when the local supervisors of elections would have to check to ensure voters aren’t kicked off the rolls in error, just as they did during Scott’s 2012 efforts.

“In that case, we did our jobs and were able to keep people on the books, and I think that’s what’s going to happen here,” Ertel said.