Florida Senate - 2017                                     SM 944
       
       
        
       By Senator Bean
       
       
       
       
       
       4-00889-17                                             2017944__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to amend certain federal laws to
    4         remove obstacles to states exercising their authority
    5         and obligation, under state and federal law, to
    6         protect the integrity of elections by ensuring that
    7         only United States citizens are registered to vote.
    8  
    9         WHEREAS, one of the most fundamental and cherished rights
   10  under the Constitution of the United States is the right to
   11  vote, and
   12         WHEREAS, the right to vote is rightly conferred only upon
   13  citizens of the United States, and
   14         WHEREAS, when noncitizens are able to vote notwithstanding
   15  the legal prohibition against it, the votes of lawful citizens
   16  are diluted and election outcomes are affected, and
   17         WHEREAS, with an estimated 11 million to 20 million aliens
   18  unlawfully present in the United States, state and local voter
   19  registration entities must be able to exercise their authority
   20  to prevent the registration of noncitizens and remove
   21  noncitizens who register to vote, and
   22         WHEREAS, in order to increase voter registration, Congress
   23  passed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), which
   24  requires states to “accept and use” a uniform “Federal Form” to
   25  register voters for federal elections, and
   26         WHEREAS, the Federal Form developed by the federal Election
   27  Assistance Commission requires only that an applicant swear,
   28  under penalty of perjury, that he or she is a citizen of the
   29  United States of America and does not require any accompanying
   30  documentary evidence of citizenship, and
   31         WHEREAS, in 2004, Arizona voters approved a ballot
   32  proposition that required voter registration officials to
   33  “reject any application for registration that is not accompanied
   34  by satisfactory evidence of United States citizenship,”
   35  including the Federal Form, and
   36         WHEREAS, in the case of Arizona et al. v. Inter Tribal
   37  Council of Arizona, Inc., et al., 133 S. Ct. 2247 (2013), the
   38  United States Supreme Court held that Arizona’s evidence of
   39  citizenship requirement, as applied to Federal Form applicants,
   40  is preempted by the NVRA’s mandate that states “accept and use”
   41  the Federal Form, and
   42         WHEREAS, the holding in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of
   43  Arizona, Inc., is grounded upon a statutory interpretation that
   44  the NVRA requirement that states “accept and use” the Federal
   45  Form does not allow states to require an applicant to submit
   46  documentary proof of citizenship supporting a response on the
   47  Federal Form that he or she is a citizen of the United States of
   48  America, and
   49         WHEREAS, the holding in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of
   50  Arizona, Inc., can be superseded by Congress amending the NVRA
   51  to clarify that states have the authority to require documentary
   52  proof of citizenship for applicants who seek to register to vote
   53  using the Federal Form, and
   54         WHEREAS, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
   55  (IRCA), Pub. L. No. 99-603, required the Federal Government to
   56  establish a system that would allow for immediate verification
   57  of the immigration status of noncitizen applicants for, and
   58  recipients of, certain types of federally funded benefits and to
   59  make the system available to federal, state, and local
   60  governmental entities that issue such benefits, which resulted
   61  in the creation of the Systematic Alien Verification for
   62  Entitlements (SAVE) program database, and
   63         WHEREAS, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
   64  Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), Pub. L. No. 104-208,
   65  mandated that the federal agency charged with enforcement of
   66  immigration laws “shall respond to an inquiry by a Federal,
   67  State, or local government agency, seeking to verify or
   68  ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any
   69  individual within the jurisdiction of the agency for any purpose
   70  authorized by law, by providing the requested verification or
   71  status information,” but also limited the number of inquiries
   72  state agencies may make, limited the circumstances under which a
   73  state agency may inquire, and authorized the federal agency
   74  charged with enforcement of immigration laws to limit its
   75  responses to inquiring agencies, and
   76         WHEREAS, the SAVE program uses an online system that checks
   77  the immigration status of an individual against millions of
   78  Department of Homeland Security database records, allowing
   79  states and local agencies access to the most accurate and up-to
   80  date information regarding immigration status, and, to
   81  facilitate the states’ efforts to ensure that noncitizens are
   82  not registered to vote, Congress should clarify existing federal
   83  statutory law and expressly grant states the right of immediate
   84  access to the SAVE program database in order to allow the states
   85  to confirm immigration status information for purposes of voter
   86  registration, and
   87         WHEREAS, Congress should amend the NVRA to clarify that the
   88  90-day provision codified in 52 U.S.C. s. 20507(c)(2)(A) does
   89  not preclude removal of noncitizens from the voter registration
   90  rolls within 90 days before an election and that the general
   91  removal provision codified in 52 U.S.C. s. 20507(c)(2)(B) allows
   92  removal of noncitizens from the voter registration rolls at any
   93  time, and
   94         WHEREAS, the foregoing statutory changes are necessary in
   95  order to ensure the integrity of voter registration rolls in
   96  Florida and throughout the United States of America and in
   97  particular to prevent aliens unlawfully present in the United
   98  States from registering to vote, NOW, THEREFORE,
   99  
  100  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
  101  
  102         That the Legislature of the State of Florida requests the
  103  United States Congress to amend the NVRA to clarify that states
  104  have authority to require documentary proof of citizenship for
  105  applicants who seek to register to vote using the Federal Form;
  106  amend the IRCA and the IIRIRA to expressly grant the states
  107  immediate access to the SAVE program database, allowing states
  108  to confirm immigration status information for purposes of voter
  109  registration; and amend the NVRA to clarify that the 90-day
  110  provision codified in 52 U.S.C. s. 20507(c)(2)(A) does not
  111  preclude removal of noncitizens from the voter registration
  112  rolls within 90 days before an election and that the general
  113  removal provision codified in 52 U.S.C. s. 20507(c)(2)(B) allows
  114  removal of noncitizens from the voter registration rolls at any
  115  time.
  116         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State dispatch
  117  copies of this memorial to the President of the United States,
  118  to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of
  119  the United States House of Representatives, and to each member
  120  of the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.