MoveOn: Mitt Romney Should Condemn Florida Voter Purge

A new MoveOn TV ad urges Mitt Romney to condemn what it calls Florida Gov. Rick Scott's (R) "racist" effort to disenfranchise Latino voters.

"Governor Scott's voter purge affects Latinos the most, and if Latinos don't vote, Mitt Romney wins," says the narrator of the 30-second ad, which is airing in Florida. "The purge is not only against the law, it's racist. So why won't Mitt Romney condemn it?"

Florida's recent request to have county election officials remove up to 2,600 voters who may be registered illegally has caused a political firestorm. Opponents -- with memories of Florida's hotly debated presidential election in 2000 still fresh in their minds -- claim that Scott's effort is a deliberate attempt to improve the GOP's electoral fortunes in 2012. This week, voter advocacy groups sued Florida, claiming that the purge was a discriminatory effort against Latino voters.

Mitt Romney balked at condemning Scott's effort to remove non-citizens from voting rolls while at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) in Orlando, Fla. on Thursday.

“We all know that Mitt Romney really, really wants to be president. But it's past time for him to publicly denounce any racist tactics that Republicans employ to keep lawful voters from voting," said Garlin Gilchrist II, MoveOn’s national campaign director, in a statement. “Romney's silence speaks volumes to the voters targeted by these suppression schemes.”

During Romney's speech in Orlando, MoveOn activists demonstrated outside, holding signs that called on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to "condemn the voter purge."

MoveOn endorsed President Obama for reelection this week.

Watch the MoveOn ad: