In the winter of 2012, Melande and her husband received an intimidating letter challenging the validity of their citizenship and informing them that they would be stripped of their voter rights. Melande, who is a U.S. citizen and a nurse in South Florida, was one of thousands of eligible voters who received the same letter because they were on Florida’s controversial voter purge list.



She stood up for her rights and became a plaintiff on a lawsuit against the state’s voter purge program. She and other plaintiffs challenged Florida's voter purge that targeted her and 2800 other voters -- who were overwhelmingly minorities and citizens eligible to vote. On April 1, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that Florida’s 2012 voter purge program violated the Voting Rights Act.



This will be a helpful precedent for halting future purges in Florida as well as other states and is a huge victory for 1199SEIU members and voters in Florida.



“I am happy that justice has prevailed,” said Melande. “My family was very intimidated to receive the letter of notice, but I felt that I needed to stand up my voting rights and those of all citizens. No American citizen should be discriminated because of their last names or their country of birth.”