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A widely derided election crimes dragnet from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appears to be targeting voters who signed a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on state ballots this fall, a measure that the Republican governor and his anti-abortion allies strongly oppose.
DeSantis’s administration has previously deployed law enforcement officers to the homes of formerly incarcerated people who were accused of illegally voting. Most of those charges were eventually dropped.
Now, officers appear to be visiting the homes of citizens who signed a petition that successfully put Amendment 4 on November’s ballots, which would enshrine the right to abortion care in the state’s constitution — and overturn state law signed by DeSantis that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant.
DeSantis’s secretary of state has ordered elections supervisors in at least four counties to review at least 36,000 petition forms that had already been verified months ago.
A state agency that operates under the governor’s office has also published a website and social media accounts to advocate against the amendment, drawing allegations that DeSantis is violating state law by using a government agency and taxpayer dollars to lobby against it.
Democratic officials and abortion rights groups are preparing legal action to stop him.
“These are petitions that were already approved, that were done properly,” Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters on Monday. “This police intimidation tactic is clearly intended to chill the democratic process.”
She said DeSantis’s “police threats” raise federal civil rights concerns, and she is “looking into” the possibility of a federal investigation.
Florida’s Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said the governor is resorting to “unlawful attacks and intimidation tactics” to suppress voters, and is “using state government resources to do it, including harassing local supervisors to demand signatures that were already certified, intimidating abortion petition signers … [and] launching an illegal government website attacking Amendment 4.”
“They can’t win on the issue, so they lie and they cheat to scare voters,” she added.
“We have some of the best attorneys in the country working on this,” Democratic state Representative Anna Eskamani added. “You can expect there to be legal battles, without a doubt.”
A statement from Florida’s Department of State claims that officials uncovered “evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions.”
“We have a duty to seek justice for Florida citizens who were victimized by fraud and safeguard the integrity of Florida’s elections,” a spokesperson added. “Our office will continue this investigation and make referrals to [the Florida Department of Law Enforcement] as appropriate.”
At an unrelated press briefing on Monday, DeSantis defended the use state agencies to weigh in on the issue, saying the website and social media messages are “above board” and “not electioneering.”
He also defended the use of so-called election police, claiming that petitions were relying on information from “dead voters” and included signatures that did not match those in a voter database.
“Maybe they signed their name. That is absolutely possible,” he said. “And if that’s what you say, I think that’s probably the end of it.”
He claimed that “there’s a lot of seedy activity going on.”
But Democrats point out that the petitions were already reviewed at local elections offices and at the state level by Democratic and Republican officials.
“So all of this looks like a ruse, like a witch hunt,” according to Florida state Representative Fentrice Driskell. “There have been Republicans involved in this validation process. It seems if there were any fraud allegations it would have been uncovered much sooner. … They have nothing to run on. They’re creating this theater.”
While DeSantis was traveling across the country to promote his failed presidential campaign, Floridians Protecting Freedom collected roughly 1 million signatures in January, ensuring a slot for Amendment 4 on November ballots.
Ballots are expected to be printed within the coming weeks. Voters will be asked whether the state’s constitution should be amended to state that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he will vote against the amendment, despite claiming that he opposes Florida’s six-week abortion ban.
After securing millions of dollars in the state budget for his Office of Election Crime and Security, DeSantis announced an “opening salvo” against voter fraud with the sweeping arrest of 20 people in 2022.
But court records and police reports reviewed by The Independent revealed that the people targeted in those stings and in a high-profile campaign-like press conference were told by election workers or other government officials that they were eligible to vote.
Virtually all the charges against them were later dropped, but not before upending their lives, including losing jobs and healthcare for their family members.
According to court records, the defendants said they did not intend to commit any crime, believing that a recent constitutional amendment had granted them their right to vote after they were disenfranchised because of their felony convictions. Videos of their arrests show them confused and deeply frustrated by the charges, and officers appeared unsure whether they did anything wrong.
“We all remember those painful police camera videos … It was revolting,” said Wasserman Schultz, who said that DeSantis is relying on the same tactics against women and abortion rights supporters.
