Reported by Peter Franceschina, Sally Kestin, John Maines, Megan O'Matz and Dana Williams Written by Sally Kestin

More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found.

Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections.

Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they're still in prison.

Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.

Maintaining accurate voting rolls is up to the state Division of Elections, which has failed to effectively remove felons for years.

Most recently, in 2006, the Auditor General recommended the division conduct a 'comprehensive check' of all registered voters against lists of convicted felons, a step the state still has not taken, Browning acknowledged.

In response to auditors, the division said running the search 'would not be a problem,' but it lacked the manpower to verify possible matches. 'Staff further stated that they were busy full-time' checking newly registered felons.

Once voters are added to the rolls, the state's procedure for removing them is tedious and labor-intensive. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement runs daily checks of criminal records against new voters and those who have made changes to their registrations, sending possible matches to the Elections Division.

Elections staff then manually check each one, a process that involves three to five workers reviewing records, comparing driver's license and prison photos and verifying convictions. Confirmed matches are sent to the counties for removal.

Since January 2006, more than 1.6 million new voters have registered in Florida. FDLE identified more than 124,000 possible felons.

In that time, elections workers removed about 7,200 from voter rolls statewide. Broward County took off just 232 and Palm Beach County 31.

'We do want to make sure ... that we have the right voter,' Browning said.

Elections workers are now reviewing more than 3,800 possible felon voters but have more than 108,000 others still to be checked. 'We've not touched those records yet,' Browning said.

Asked how long it will take to review them all, he said, 'I don't have a clue. I really don't.'
 

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