Election supervisors in Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, and Osceola Counties have been asked to turn over for review about 36,000 signatures from petitions used to get an abortion rights amendment on the November ballot in Florida.
However, the main organization supporting the amendment, Floridians Protecting Freedom, said local election supervisors verified the signatures as real.
“Signatures were verified in February of 2024, we’re well past this conversation,” FPF’s campaign director Lauren Brenzel said.
While only 900,000 signatures are needed to qualify for the ballot, about a million signatures were collected for Amendment 4.
In July the Florida Department of State’s general counsel Brad McVay requested to look over some of the already-verified petitions.
The Department of State said it has seen an increase in ballot petition fraud in the past few years, which led to the creation of an elections fraud unit.
The unit “has (the) authority to conduct preliminary investigations into any allegations of irregularities or fraud involving voter registration or voting, or candidate or issue petition activities,” according to its website.
Now Mark Ard, the Department of State’s external affairs director, said in a statement to WMNF that the state has “uncovered evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions.”
Documents signed by Brad McVay in July said over the past several months, the department has received “alarming” information from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office regarding fake signatures from Floridians Protecting Freedom.
Officials said that out of the 37,000 petitions submitted by 35 circulators, 13,982 were invalidated by the Supervisor Of Elections office.
“We have a duty to seek justice for Florida citizens who were victimized by fraud,” Ard said.
They said some of the signatures were from deceased individuals or from citizens who refused to sign.
After the request for signatures, FPF’s Brenzel discussed the ballot and the upcoming plans with the organization on a media call this month.
“Florida voters put this on the ballot for November,” she said. “All of this is a distraction so that they don’t have to talk about Florida’s extreme abortion ban.”
Brenzel shared stories about women who were denied abortion care when their health was on the line and said she wants their stories to be heard.
Keisha Mulfort represents the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. She had similar comments to Brenzel on the call.
“I can surmise or guess that the reason for this particular type of investigation or interference is to try to press, to throw doubt on this amendment, but let’s be clear, this is nothing more than a distraction,” Mulfort said.
The ACLU of Florida and the Southern Legal Counsel have filed a joint lawsuit on behalf of FPF.
This lawsuit is against the Agency for Health Care Administration, a state-run agency, to stop what the organizations are calling a misinformation campaign against Amendment 4.
Michelle Morton is one of the staff attorneys for the ACLU of Florida.
“Florida’s government has crossed a dangerous line by using public resources to mislead voters and manipulate their choices in the upcoming election,” Morton said in a press release.
The filed complaint said AHCA violates political power that has been constitutionally reserved to the people.
FPF also filed a temporary injunction to “immediately stop the unlawful and unconstitutional spread of misinformation about Amendment 4 through any websites, radio spots, or television advertisements by the (AHCA).”
FPF said they want to prevent AHCA from “spending any public funds or using, distributing, or making available any other materials containing misinformation about Amendment 4 or interfering with the right of Florida citizens to prose and vote on constitutional amendments.”
After the lawsuit was filed, DeSantis said AHCA has been providing factual information for voters.
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