Justice Department Tells Florida to Halt Voter List Purge June 1, 2012, 6:18 pm Florida Republicans have gone so far in trying to tilt the voter rolls to their advantage that two higher powers were forced to step in yesterday to right the balance. In 2008, registration drives brought thousands of young, black, Hispanic or low-income voters to the polls, many of whom helped President Obama win the state. To prevent that from happening again, the Republican-dominated legislature passed a law last year that could have imposed heavy fines or criminal penalties on volunteers if they accidentally registered an ineligible voter. That put a quick end to the drives. On Thursday, Federal Judge Robert Hinkle said the limits on voter drives were unworkable, served no legitimate purpose, and appear to violate the National Voter Registration Act. He blocked them until there can be a trial on the issues. The League of Women Voters, which by current Florida standards is a radical band of outlaws, cheered the ruling and vowed to return to the dangerous business of helping people participate in democracy. State officials, meanwhile, had found another way to reduce the participation of minorities and the poor, who tend to vote Democratic. A few months ago, Gov. Rick Scott expressed deep concern that non-citizens might be poisoning the political system by daring to vote, though there wasn't the slightest indication that was a widespread problem. To prevent that from happening, he ordered that the voter rolls be checked against driver's license records to ferret out renegade voters. That process produced hundreds of errors and drew widespread criticism, but none as effective as the letter that arrived from the Justice Department late yesterday. It said the purge violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires the department to pass judgment on all voting changes in certain areas with a history of discrimination against minorities, including parts of Florida. As a result, the department said, the purge was legally unenforceable. Immediately, county election supervisors across the state (many of whom always hated the idea of a purge) said they would stop trying to scrub the rolls. That left Mr. Scott sounding rather alone, denying any discriminatory intent and saying the state would review the letter from Washington. "We want fair elections," he said. As long as the right people do the electing.