In a recent development, the administration under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called upon law enforcement to give top priority to investigating potential “fraudulent” signatures collected on petitions. These petitions are aimed at placing a pro-abortion measure on the ballot for Nov. 5, a move unveiled in correspondence disclosed to The Daily Signal.
Allegations have surfaced in Palm Beach County, forwarded by the local Supervisor of Elections, of voters claiming their signatures were falsely appended to constitutional initiative petitions. These petitions were being circulated by the advocacy group Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is pushing for an amendment to legalize abortion up until birth.
Brad McVay, Deputy Secretary of State for Legal Affairs and Election Integrity, in a letter to Andrew Watts, the lead special agent at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Election Crime Unit, emphasized the urgency of addressing “illegal petition forms” discovered in Palm Beach, among other locations across Florida.
The office of the city’s supervisor of elections has been the recipient of several complaints from voters disavowing their signatures on the submitted petition forms. Furthermore, investigations have unveiled signatures purportedly from deceased individuals.
According to McVay’s letter, “The circulators appear to have forged the voters’ signatures and inserted the voters’ personal identifiable information into the petitions without consent.”
McVay also shared grievances from voters adamant they never signed on to support the contentious abortion petition, with one stating, “Someone signed my named on a petition asking the government to stay of out abortion control. I am pro-life. I would never sign that.”
To successfully place Amendment 4 on the ballot, Floridians Protecting Freedom is tasked with amassing nearly 900,000 signatures. This amendment aims to safeguard abortion rights up to the point of birth, contingent upon a health care provider’s assessment of the necessity to protect the patient’s health.
Given the amendment’s lack of explicit definitions for “health” or “health care provider,” concerns have been raised that it could usher in abortion practices unrestricted by the stage of pregnancy, leaning solely on a medical professional’s judgment whether the abortion would serve the mother’s physical, emotional, or broader health needs.
Recent actions by law enforcement, involving door-to-door inquiries with individuals who allegedly signed the pro-abortion petition, have sparked accusations from pro-abortion groups of voter intimidation by DeSantis’ administration.
“The DeSantis administration is not investigating voter fraud; it’s investigating people who support reproductive rights, and that should be a violation of the First Amendment,” declared the ACLU of Florida on X.
Yet, according to Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for DeSantis, the complaint forms narrate a saga of fraudulent activities. For instance, one affected voter highlighted, “My name was forged on a petition ‘limiting government interference w/ abortion.’ Luckily, the Supervisor of Elections caught it and sent me a letter. The responsible party should be prosecuted.”
Governor DeSantis, voicing his stance on election integrity, affirmed at a Monday roundtable discussion, “Our tolerance in the state of Florida for any type of election-related fraud is zero.”
