Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Arkansas Politics Blue Arkansas: Mark Martin looking at voter purge in Arkansas
Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 9:41 AM
The Blue Arkansas Blog has unearthed documents through FOI requests that seem to support his theory that Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin is working on a plan pioneered in Florida to use a federal Homeland Security database — a database highly dubious for the purpose — to purge voter rolls of suspected illegal immigrants.
Martin's antipathy toward first-generation Americans, particularly Latinos, has been well-documented in resistance to providing federally mandated bilingual voter forms and in comments of his staffer Alex Reed in a recent talk in Union County.
I've asked the office for specific plans relative to the database. Will update when I have a response.
UPDATE: Alex Reed, the Republican National Convention delegate who handles press for Martin, says Martin requested the database Aug. 15. But he added: "The Secretary of States office does not “purge” voter lists."
I've asked what use, then, will be made of the database.
UPDATE II: "Review it," says Reed. Cute. Too cute by half.
UPDATE III: "We may forward it to the county clerks." Yes, but, what's it worth given the demonstrated shortcomings of the data?
UPDATE IV: "We’ll have to see after we get access to the database."
Blue Arkansas writes:
This interest centers around access to the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database or SAVE. SAVE is a government database used to make sure non-citizens aren’t getting government benefits that they aren’t entitled to. It relies on DHS records uploaded from U.S. Central Index System databases that use alien registration numbers assigned at various stages of the immigration process. It is not, by its nature, a complete list of citizens nor can it verify U.S.-born citizens. When Florida attempted to use SAVE records for the purpose of removing “undocumented immigrants” from the voting rolls it resulted in an incredibly inaccurate list of U.S. citizens who were ineligible to vote being purged from the rolls, the targets of the purge being overwhelmingly members of minority groups and Democrats, surprise surprise. State officials were warned about that ahead of time and went ahead with it anyway, which further shows the partisan nature of this voter suppression game. It is already illegal for an undocumented immigrant to vote and there are stiff felony charges that come with doing so or for knowingly registering someone who’s ineligible. This isn’t about stopping voter fraud, which Republicans are yet to provide a single of example of. It’s about suppressing minority and Democratic votes.
Speaking of...
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April 4, 2013The Arkansas Republican Party, having passed a Voter ID bill developed nationally to depress turnout among traditional Democratic constituencies, mounted a PR effort this morning to show that they really do care about people voting. /more/
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April 1, 2013At 2:20 p.m., the House is hearing arguments from Rep. Stephen Meeks to override Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of the bill to require a photo ID to vote in Arkansas. /more/
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Speaker Carter gets touchy on senator's outburst
March 30, 2013The Arkansas legislature faces a six-day week next week because of the need for extended meetings to complete action on pending business before the currently scheduled end of the session April 19. /more/
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The Good God Friday Edition
March 29, 2013Prop 8 and DOMA and the Arkansas General Assembly and Sen. Mark Pryor shameful responses where, the fight over voter ID, media criticism of the Democrat-Gazette, the morality of Republican tax cuts, Big River Steel, new numbers on expansion and the latest on the potential merger between UAMS and St. Vincent — all covered on this week's edition. /more/
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March 29, 2013When they say it (voter ID, whatever) isn't about race or poor people .... Check this out. /more/
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March 28, 2013Gov. Mike Beebe on Monday vetoed the Republican vote suppression bill because it unnecessarily restricts the right to vote. It was courageous. /more/
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Gov. Mike Beebe vetoes Voter ID bill
March 25, 2013Gov. Mike Beebe has vetoed SB 2, the Republican-backed Voter ID bill. /more/
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March 21, 2013The line is open. Finishing up: * VOTING RIGHTS: Now that the legislature has approved a bill to make it harder to vote in Arkansas, it's a good time for reading the Encyclopedia of Arkansas's new entry on voting rights in Arkansas. /more/
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NSFR: Not suitable for Republicans working in legislature
March 20, 2013Wider circulation on YouTube of Rep. John Walker's powerful remarks on efforts to make it harder to vote in Arkansas, a speech that a white-faced Republican unborn when Walker faced institutional discrimination found inappropriate. /more/
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