Responding to an uproar over Florida’s contentious plan to purge its voter rolls, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) claimed the effort is not an attempt to target minorities, as Democrats and liberal groups are charging. Further, West blasted the federal government for “going after sovereign states,” contending that states have the right to enforce such measures in their voting systems, as they are essential to ensuring voter accuracy, and ultimately, representative government as a whole.

Led by Florida Governor Rick Scott, the effort intends to clean the state’s voter rolls of non-citizens and other non-eligible voters — including dead people — by examining driver’s license databases, which contain vital citizenship information. Asserting that Florida’s actions disenfranchise minority groups, particularly among Hispanics, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state.

“We have an obligation to make sure the voter rolls are accurate and we are going to continue forward and do everything that we can legally do to make sure that ineligible voters cannot vote,” said Chris Cate, a spokesman for Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner. “We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot. We are not going to give up our efforts to make sure the voter rolls are accurate."

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Photo: Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Feb. 10, 2012: AP Images