‘My signature has been forged’: DeSantis probes Florida pro-abortion ballot measure petitions

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is asking law enforcement to “prioritize” the investigation into what may be “fraudulent” signatures on petitions to get a pro-abortion measure on the Nov. 5 ballot, according to a letter shared with The Daily Signal.

The Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections’ office received complaints from voters about their signatures being forged on constitutional initiative petitions circulated by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the pro-abortion coalition behind an amendment that would legalize abortion on demand up to birth.

To highlight “illegal petition forms” in Palm Beach County, Deputy Secretary of State for Legal Affairs and Election Integrity Brad McVay wrote a letter on Tuesday to Andrew Watts, the special agent supervisor at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Election Crime Unit.

“Given the volume of allegations in Palm Beach, as well as other Florida counties, [the Office of Election Crimes and Security] has previously referred to your office, OECS respectfully asks you to prioritize the resolution of this investigation,” the letter reads.

Palm Beach voters submitted complaints to the city’s supervisor of elections saying they did not sign the petition forms submitted in their names. The election office also identified some alleged signers to be deceased, according to the letter.

“The circulators appear to have forged the voters’ signatures and inserted the voters’ personal identifiable information into the petitions without consent,” McVay’s letter says.

McVay included copies of complaints from voters saying they did not intend to sign the radical abortion petition.

“Someone signed my named on a petition asking the government to stay of out abortion control,” one Palm Beach voter wrote. “I am pro-life. I would never sign that.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom had to gather almost 900,000 signatures to get Amendment 4 on the ballot. It would prohibit restrictions on abortion when “necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Because the text of the constitutional amendment contains no definition of “health” or “health care provider,” the measure would likely legalize abortion at any stage of the pregnancy if anyone who claims medical expertise asserts the mother would benefit from it physically, emotionally, or otherwise.

Police have been going door to door asking petition signers if they meant to sign the pro-abortion petition. In response, pro-abortion activists have accused DeSantis’ administration of voter intimidation.

“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,” the ACLU of Florida wrote on X.

The petition complaint forms tell a different story, according to DeSantis’ spokesman Jeremy Redfern.

“My name was forged on a petition ‘limiting government interference w/ abortion,’” a voter wrote on a petition complaint form. “Luckily, the Supervisor of Elections caught it and sent me a letter. The responsible party should be prosecuted.”

“I have not signed a petition, and my signature has been forged,” another complaint form says.

DeSantis addressed the purportedly forged signatures at a roundtable discussion on Monday.

“Our tolerance in the state of Florida for any type of election-related fraud is zero,” DeSantis said.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

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