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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Rick Scott Wins

Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano have cried “uncle”. He is throwing in the towel on a legal challenge against Governor Rick Scott (R-FL).

Governor Scott’s team down in Florida discovered a large number of people on the voter rolls who were not eligible to vote in Florida. They then discovered that more than a thousand of those people had actually voted in Florida elections.

The next step was logical. The Florida state government began removing people from the list of voters who did not belong there. Eric Holder filed a suit to stop it. At the same time, Governor Scott insisted Florida be given access to a federal database that Florida could use to cross reference its voter rolls.

The feds had refused.

Then the feds lost their case against Florida in federal court.

Now the feds have completely caved to Governor Scott.

In a victory for Republicans, the federal government has agreed to let Florida use a law enforcement database to challenge people’s right to vote if they are suspected of not being U.S. citizens.

The agreement, made in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s administration that was obtained by The Associated Press, grants the state access to a list of resident noncitizens maintained by the Homeland Security Department. The Obama administration had denied Florida’s request for months but relented after a judge ruled in the state’s favor in a related voter-purge matter.

Anybody who knows Governor Scott knows he has an unrelenting tenacity. Good for him that he refused to cut a deal or walk away on this. Polling in Florida suggests that this push of his is more popular than he is as Governor. But if he keeps racking up wins like this, I have no doubt his personal popularity will go up too. This is a big win.

COMMENTS

  • Charles Cianfrocca

    Someone should scour this decision well and see if we’re missing something here — since when do the Holders and the Nappys just cave?

  • fpete13527

    Mr and Ms “Culture of Corruption” Holder and Napolitano had no choice here.

    The pathetic Motor Voter Law spawned hundreds of thousands of illegal voter registrations of which as many as HALF or more could be still registered illegally.

    Along with many others here in Florida, we checked the actual voter rolls and the results were devastating.

    Gov. Scott saw this and acted brilliantly as he has always done. Gov Scott remains the greatest gift to Florida.

    Thank you once again Gov Scott.

  • mikeymike143

    and yes he has taken a beating in the lefty south florida press for defending conservative principles and that has temporarily hurt his popularity. but his policies are very popular with floridians and come election time, you will see rick scott get reelected, just like you saw scott walker win his recall election.

    conservative republican governors like walker and scott are finally standing up for the taxpayers in their states and deserve kudos for doing so!!!

  • DerKrieger

    …holds the line on the Medicaid expansion and exchange implementation.

    He can help stiffen the spines of some other GOP governors to help defeat Obamacare.

  • npaul

    When Holder filed suit against Florida’s Voter ID law, it was front page news in the local ragsheet (Tampa Trib). When Holder caved in, they buried it back on page 12. This was after Senators Bill Nelson and Dick Durbin came to Tampa, with great fanfare from all the local media earlier this year, to hold a “hearing” on the Voter ID law. As I wrote in a letter to the editor, which they wouldn’t publish, for Nelson, it was just posturing and protecting his re-election.

    The problem is that even before news broke that Holder caved in, some of the county elections supervisors here in Florida (elected Democrats) had already declared they weren’t going to do anything about the people in their county who might be illegally registered because they didn’t believe they had a problem. I don’t know if Scott can force the issue on the county level or not.

  • troublingtimes

    I love to hear this news. Good for Florida. Good for Gov. Scott, and I think Pam Bondi did a lot of work on this as well. Just a gut feeling on that one.

    I want to see this attitude of forethought and getting ready for the cheaters and how to keep it all to a minimum.

  • earlgrey

    Yo, republicans in DC. Take a page from Scott and Walker.