Florida Dept. of State re-examining abortion rights amendment signatures
TAMPA, Fla. - The state government is investigating petitions signed by Florida voters that were used to get Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
The measure would ensure a right to an abortion, up to the point of viability.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has made clear that he wants Floridians to vote "No" on the amendment, which says, "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health."
"Once voters figure out how radical both of those are, they're going to fail," Gov. DeSantis said in April. "They are very, very extreme."
Now the Department of State, run by one of the governor's appointees, is re-examining some of the nearly one million signatures submitted by supporters.
An email to Hillsborough County's elections officials from Brad McVay, a high-ranking official in the state department says, "On behalf of the Department I am requesting your county pull for our review the verified petitions associated with each of the circulators listed in the attachments. Most of the circulators listed represent known or suspected fraudsters, several others have very concerning invalidity rates. We would like to review the petitions that were verified as valid submitted by these individuals."
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The supervisor's office in Orange County said state officials arrived in person last week to examine signatures. Between Orange and Hillsborough counties, that's about 18,500 signatures.
"To me, it all looks politically motivated," said State Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa). "And this is very unfortunate because the voters have spoken and they want amendment four on their ballot this November."
In February of this year, FDLE announced the arrest of a petition circulator for submitting 133 bogus signatures supposedly from Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.
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Supporters submitted 100,000 more signatures than needed.
"I do not trust that thinly veiled attempt," said Driskell, "it's just a guise in order to conduct this investigation."
Amendment 4 supporters also point out the signatures have already been deemed valid.
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The leader of Floridians Protecting Freedom, Lauren Brenzel said in a statement, "Any attempt to undermine this vote is an attack on Floridians’ rights, their futures, and democracy at-large."
In April, the governor predicted the amendment wouldn't get the required 60 percent support.
"Florida voters over the past four or five cycles have developed a skepticism on these amendments, generally because they're always written in ways that are confusing."
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The deadline to officially challenge the petitions was ten days after it made the ballot, which was Jan. 5.
The Department of State has not responded to requests for additional comment.
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