Local election supervisors were informed this week that Florida plans to restart its controversial voter purge prior to the November 6 election. In a detailed PowerPoint presentation obtained by ThinkProgress, Governor Rick Scott’s Department of State lays out the plan.

The initial purge effort, conducted in May, informed hundreds of fully eligible U.S. citizens that Florida believed they were ineligible to vote. Among those targeted was a 91-year-old World War II veteran.

Election officials were told to expect a revised lists of voters for possible removal in two to three weeks but “not later than October 15, 2012.”

The presentation outlines a proceedure to “update” their flawed purge list by cross-checking it against a federal Department of Homeland Security database (SAVE). This task is apparently being done by hand and has not been completed since there is “no established automated process yet.”

The Florida Department of State acknolwedges that, in many cases, the federal SAVE database will not establish definitively whether or not someone is a U.S. citizen. In that case, they are directing election officials to mail them letters to “re-affirm registration status” and “remind them of eligibility requirements and that it is illegal to be registered and vote when someone is not a U.S. citizen.”

Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall, a Republican who was recently informed of new purge, told ThinkProgress:

We’re 55 days in front of a huge election. It just doesn’t help us whatsoever. I went through the SAVE training today—it’s the most convoluted thing you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s awful.

Even if they got the list of names to us tomorrow, there wouldn’t be time. That person has due process. Anyone has due process in the state and country.

Florida claims that the purge proceedures they outline “is not subject to the 90-day moratorium preceding a federal election.” The Department of Justice disputes that interpretation and has sued Florida to stop the purge.

During a town hall in De Pere, Wisconsin, Paul Ryan said that President Obama’s “weakness” and “moral equivocation” on national security is to blame for Tuesday’s outbreak of violence in Egypt and Libya that resulted in the murder of four American officials, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

“It is very important that a president speak with a singular voice representing our principles and our values,” Ryan said in response to a question from the audience. “If you show weakness, if you show moral equivocation, then foreign policy adventerusim among our adversaries will increase.” He promised that a Romney administration would lead with “peace through strength” and added:

RYAN: We do not want a world climate where our adversaires are so tempted to test us and our allies our worried about trusting us. And that is unfortunately the path we are on right now and I really worry about that.

Watch it:

Ryan also argued that the defense cuts included in the 2011 Budget Control Act — which he voted for — will contribute to the “weakness” that triggered the violence in the Middle East. “I believe that the president’s devastating defense cuts breed weakness,” he claimed.

Mitt Romney stood by his criticism of the Obama administration for allegedly “apologizing” for “our values” in the aftermath of attacks against American interests in Libya and Egypt. The violence was fueled by an American-made film depicting the Prophet Muhammad “as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug.”

In a hastily arranged press conference on Wednesday morning, Romney rebuked an early statement from America’s Egyptian embassy condemning “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims” — which the White House said was not cleared by Washington — and accused the Obama administration of sending “mixed signals” to the world. Romney then said that he agreed with President Obama’s official response:

ROMNEY: The embassy in Cairo put out a statement after their grounds had been breached, protestors were inside the grounds, they reiterated that statement after the breach…Apologizing for America’s values is never the right course.

REPORTER: Governor Romney do you think, though, coming so soon after the events really had unfolded overnight was appropriate, to be weighing on this as this crisis is unfolding in realtime?

ROMNEY: The White House also issued a statement saying it tried to distance itself from those comments and said they were not reflecting of their views. I had the exact same reaction. These views were inappropriate. [...]

REPORTER: What did the White House do wrong, then, Governor Romney if they put out a statement saying they disagreed with it? [...]

ROMNEY: They clearly sent mixed messages to the world, and the statement that came from the administration, and the embassy is the administration. The statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology and I think was a severe miscalculation.

But the timeline of events undermines Romney’s claim that Obama “apologized” for the nation.

The Egyptian embassy issued its statement on Tuesday morning at 6:11 AM, before protesters broke out. Once they did, and another group of demonstrators attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration distanced itself from the early statement. “The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.

“While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants,” Obama clarified in a statement on Wednesday morning.

Interestingly, former President George W. Bush struck a similar tone in 2006, after cartoons surfaced poking fun at the Prophet Muhammed and sparked protests in Europe. “Anti-Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti-Semitic images, as anti-Christian images, or any other religious belief,” Bush administration State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.