The email sent from Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on 10/22/12 to all of the state’s county Supervisors of Elections, warning of a fake voter purge letter being sent to voters (discovered in 23 counties to date, as of 10/25/12) follows below.
A copy of one of the phony purge letters was attached to the email to the SOEs. That PDF is here.
Sender: “Bishop, Shelby L.”
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:59:16 -0400
To: SOEContacts
Subject: Letter Impersonating Supervisor of Elections
Dear Supervisors:
Voters in multiple counties have recently received suspicious ‘official looking’ mail alleging that they are potentially ineligible to vote. The Department of State takes this possible act of voter intimidation and fraudulent activity very seriously and is pursuing all avenues to ensure the practice is immediately stopped, as we do with all attempts at voter intimidation or fraud.
In addition to being presented on fraudulent letterhead from a Supervisor of Elections’ office or the Division of Elections, the letter states that the person has only 15 days to respond. This letter has not been issued from our offices or from any Supervisor of Elections’ office. Attached is a copy of such a letter.
The Department is referring any information about these letters and other cases of potential voter fraud to law enforcement. For the possible violations of state law, a person who commits or attempts to commit voter intimidation, voter suppression, corruptly influencing voting, can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years.
We ask that you report any other incidences of voters receiving such a letter to Bennett Miller, Assistant General Counsel, Department of State, at Bennett.Miller@DOS.myflorida.com; phone: 850-245-6536. In order to avoid duplicate investigations, we ask that you contact us before making a referral to law enforcement.
Also to assist with the documentation necessary for this investigation, please provide to Mr. Miller as soon as possible, the following:
- Copies of any letters and envelope; otherwise, the date of the letter, the postmark date and origin of mailing
- Voter’s name and FVRS ID number
- Information as to whether the voter is a poll worker or poll watcher
- Names and address of any person who has requested in the last 30 days a list of voters (to include absentee voters), poll workers, or poll watchers.
We appreciate your immediate attention and cooperation. This is a very serious matter. If you have questions or comments or I can help in anyway, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Ken Detzner
Secretary of State
