Schultz to hold hearing on voter intimidation rules Thursday

Secretary of State, Matt Schultz has been on a witch hunt for non-existent voter fraud. Last summer, Schultz tried to give himself emergency powers to eliminate registered voters he was not convinced were U.S. citizens, which was stopped by a temporary court injunction.Well, Schultz is at it again – by actively working to suppress the vote. Schultz is specifically targeting immigrant members of our community. He wants to gain access to Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification Entitlement (SAVE) list to compare matches of immigrant voters to this list to see who is documented and who is not. If a person’s citizenship is in question, a letter is sent out requiring proof of citizenship to vote and the person in question will need to prove their status within 30 days or request an extension to prove their citizenship. This is voter intimidation pure and simple.Not only is this voter intimidation but there are practical problems and costly implications with this system.Officials from Homeland Security’s SAVE already have written Schultz saying that this system has significant limitations because the office does not have access to birth certificates, only naturalization information.The list can only be pulled once per quarter so anyone who became a citizen between the date the list was pulled and now would be flagged and even though they are now citizens will be required to give proof of their citizenship.Individuals will have to jump through hoops to provide information in a 30-day window.  Some might not have the required documentation especially if they’re awaiting passports and sent their naturalization papers in with the applications and some might not know their voter status is in question because they have moved.We do not have a voter fraud problem in this state.On January 3 from 2 p.m.  to 4 p.m., Schultz is holding public hearings throughout the state to receive oral and written comment on the proposed rule. CCI members will be there to tell Schultz to end the witch hunt for non-existent voter fraud, stop intimidating members of our community and to encourage people to vote by supporting universal voter registration.