In the legal wake of a settlement with several major civil rights organizations yesterday, the state of Florida has decided to back off its effort to purge a list of 2,600 “potential non-citizens” from its voter-rolls. Those who previously received a letter barring their eligibility will now be re-instated. Judith Browne Davis, a co-director of the Advancement Project who helped bring the case to the courts, remarked:
This settlement represents a historic milestone for voting rights in Florida. It will ensure that naturalized citizens, the majority of whom are Latino, black and Asian, have the same opportunities as all Americans to participate in our political process and exercise the most fundamental right in our democracy—the right to vote. The Secretary of State has agreed to abandon its practice of forcing naturalized citizens to prove their citizenship, and that is a victory for all us.
