Thousands of foreign citizens might be registered to vote in Florida – a crucial presidential swing state -- and could have unlawfully cast ballots in previous elections, the
Miami Herald reported Tuesday night.
If true, the finding would be a remarkable validation of conservative fears that undocumented aliens and resident non-citizens could be swaying elections in large, battleground states like Florida and New York.
The potential problem is largest in South Florida, especially in Florida’s largest county, Miami-Dade, where the elections supervisor is examining 2,000 potentially unlawful voters, Miami-based WFOR-CBS 4 News first reported Tuesday.
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Neighboring Broward County is examining 260 suspected foreign voters. One suspected noncitizen voter has been registered for about 40 years, CBS 4 found.
Over the past year, the Florida Division of Elections has begun identifying potential foreigners on the rolls in coordination with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Division of Elections spokesman Chris Cate told The Miami Herald.
He said the state has forwarded the names to county elections supervisors, who are in charge of the rolls.
“There will be more names,” Cate said.
There are 1.2 million registered voters in Miami-Dade. Two thousand voters would be more than enough to swing a close election in a state like Florida, where the 2000 presidential election was decided in favor of George W. Bush by 537 votes.
“If we find out after the fact that you are actually a noncitizen, and you are registered to vote, then we would report you to the State Attorney’s Office,” said Christina White, Miami-Dade’s deputy supervisor of elections, according to CBS 4.
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“If you are not [a citizen] and you check the box on the registration form that says that you are [a citizen],” White said, “we are required to register you to vote, because you are taking that under oath.”
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