Florida's Special Session to Also Investigate Petition Fraud

It’s been a rather busy week in Florida news. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Attorney General Ashley Moody was replacing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is expected to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. James Uthemier has also been named as Moody’s replacement. And, a special legislative session was called at the start this week, to take place on January 27. Not only are lawmakers to look into illegal immigration, but petition fraud as well.

Last November, Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state, and Amendment 4, which would have allowed for unlimited abortions in the state, both enjoyed a majority support. Due to Florida's law requiring that amendments have 60 percent support to pass, both failed. The pro-abortion amendment nevertheless came particularly close, though, with 57.2 percent voting in support.

Did that many Floridians, though, in such a red state, really support unlimited marijuana and/or abortion?

On Wednesday, Brad McVay, the Deputy Secretary of State for Legal Affairs & Election Integrity, addressed a letter to DeSantis, Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, and Florida House of Representatives Speaker Derek Perez, along with an over 900+ page report. McVay's letter references an interim report from last month which "addressed fraud-related concerns specific to signature gathering efforts for proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution."

As his letter goes on to mention:

...Of note, Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF), the proponents of proposed constitutional Amendment 4 during the 2024 election, paid over $186,000 in civil penalties for violations of Florida election laws. More fines for other proponents of ballot initiatives are expected as [the Office of Election Crimes and Security] continues to identify bad actors among the ranks of petition-gathering companies, some of which operate outside the State of Florida and thus make it difficult for OECS to investigate them.

The executive summary to such a report also mentioned further details about the pro-abortion supporters. "Based on the preliminary results of that investigation, the number of FPF paid circulators who have committed criminal activity in connection with Initiative Petition 23-07 has no grown to well over 100, affecting many of thousands of Floridians. Unfortunately the investigation also revealed that the procedures established by current law allowed thousands of fraudulent and otherwise invalid petition forms to be erroneously validated for Initiative Petition 23-07."

That being said, the executive summary also warned that FPF was "not alone." Additional arrests are also expected in 2025. OECS submitted such a report in part to "reemphasize the need for more effective regulation of petition circulations, verification of initiative petition forms, and enforcement mechanisms. OECS also highlights other areas of focus and provides a breakdown of cases it has received and investigated during 2024."

Deputy Press Secretary Julia Friedland also spoke about the report in a statement shared exclusively with Townhall. "As demonstrated in the newly released report by the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security, the current petition process in Florida is rife with fraud and outside actors who seek to pay their way into special privilege in the Florida Constitution. This report underscores the necessity of the Florida legislature to answer the Governor’s call for a special session on January 27th and tackle election petition integrity," she said.

DeSantis himself also spoke about concerns with fraud during a press conference at the Florida Capitol on Sunday, when he was making his announcement about the special session.

"We'll be reforming the petition and amendment process in the state of Florida," DeSantis shared about this "final addition to the call."

"I mean, we had, this major, major thing in this last election. And to have the amount of fraudulent petitions that were verified as fraudulent by the Secretary of State's investigation for Amendment 4, that is a huge, huge problem," DeSantis emphasized. "And I think part of the reason we're at this juncture is because the citizen initiative has really been transformed into a special interest initiative as basically major well-funded... interests."

"They will pay people to gather petitions and they'll pay them. And so these people have admitted, some of them have admitted to doing fraudulent petitions. And so, we need election integrity across the board. It can't just be, yes, obviously if you're going to cast your ballot, you need ID, you need paper ballots, all that. But these initiatives, these petitions should not be able to be manipulated this way, especially with respect to amending the constitution. Our constitution should not be for sale to the highest bidder. So, reform is needed. I think there's broad agreement in the legislature that that reform is needed," DeSantis explained further about their concerns.

The governor also raised why it's necessary to get it down now, so soon before the next election.

"I think it's timely because why start another election cycle where you have the old system, and then what if there's fraud, what are you, going to do at that point? It's just, it didn't work this last time to, to adequately police the fraud. We got it. And I think people will be held accountable. I know some have been, I think there'll probably be more prosecutions, but let's just get it right now so we don't have to worry about this going forward," he further explained. "So I look forward to being able to work with the legislature to deliver these really significant issues on behalf of the people of Florida. But, we don't have the ability to just sit around and wait with a new president taking office with these new policy changes that are coming. We've got to get ahead of it. We've got to make sure that we are there as a willing partner with the Trump administration to be able to accomplish what the voters sent President Trump to accomplish."