TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A federal judge is rejecting a request to block Florida's controversial move to remove potentially ineligible voters.
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U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Wednesday ruled that the state can identify and remove voters who may not be U.S. citizens even if it is close to the upcoming Aug. 14 election.
But state officials during the hearing said they have voluntarily stopped the voter purge.
State officials already asked local election supervisors to check out the citizenship status of more than 2,600 voters but the state has also drawn up a list of 180,000 voters. A spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott said the state will not distribute that list unless the state first can check the names against a federal immigration database.