Ron DeSantis declares war on widespread ballot petition fraud

Election integrity has been the top concern for many Republican voters, but despite their complaints, few Republicans have taken significant action. Florida stands out. Instead of resorting to window dressing, press conferences, and memes, Gov. Ron DeSantis established an election integrity unit within the state’s law enforcement agency, which has actively pursued criminal fraud charges. Now, he is elevating his efforts to clean up elections to a new level.

Gathering petitions for citizen-driven ballot initiatives is a tedious process that demands significant time, money, and organization to collect enough valid signatures within a short period. The left undoubtedly has the resources to carry out these projects, but are we really to believe it gathered just enough signatures to get all it priorities on the November ballot in multiple states without a hitch? Or is something more suspicious at play?

A handful of votes often decide many local races, and noncitizens should never influence the outcome.

In Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis takes election integrity seriously, state officials have started scrutinizing the signature-gathering for an abortion amendment amid widespread allegations of fraud. The media, predictably, is crying foul while ignoring key evidence.

Last week, the Tampa Bay Times accused DeSantis of “political interference” for investigating 36,000 signatures collected in Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, and Osceola Counties for Amendment 4. They suggested that the governor is using his office to intimidate political opponents with criminal charges simply because he opposes Amendment 4. This is why most media articles frame the story as “police questioning voters about signing abortion rights ballot petitions,” implying that the police are randomly targeting people based on their views.

The dead have risen, and they’re signing petitions!

While DeSantis strongly opposes the unlimited abortion provisions outlined in Amendment 4, the Florida Department of State’s criminal referral to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement highlights serious concerns of fraud. Police are investigating only the evidence of fraud.

The Florida Department of State has referred criminal investigations to FDLE for alleged signature fraud in Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Alachua, Orange, and Osceola counties. In a letter to the FDLE’s special Election Integrity Unit, the deputy secretary of state reported that the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections found that several dozen paid petition circulators allegedly engaged in fraud. The Palm Beach election office secured signed complaints from individuals falsely listed as having signed petitions circulated by paid workers for the Soros-funded group Floridians Protecting Freedom, though they never signed them.

In some cases, the paid circulators, whose names were redacted in the document, allegedly signed the petitions themselves. Additionally, some of the signatures belonged to individuals who were deceased at the time of circulation. The letter suggests that these cases likely represent just the tip of the iceberg in one county while the organization under investigation operated statewide.

The 35 individuals under investigation collectively turned in 37,000 signatures, of which 23,018 were verified. The scale of the fraud and its potential impact on invalidating the amendment remains unclear. However, there is already significant evidence that individuals deliberately engaged in election fraud, an issue that both sides of any amendment initiative petition should oppose. The fraud was so pervasive that a staffer from the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections found her own name on the petition without her consent.

Assuming that all successful petition drives are legitimate in light of this evidence is absurd. Earlier this year, in Arkansas, liberal groups submitted 101,525 signatures to place a state constitutional right to abortion on the November ballot. The secretary of state removed more than 14,000 signatures for failing to meet state law requirements, invalidating the effort. The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s decision in a ruling last month.

In Florida, circulators submitted about 100,000 more signatures than needed, making it unlikely that the margin of fraud will change the outcome. But as DeSantis said last week, “Our tolerance in the state of Florida for any type of election-related fraud is zero.”

Why not follow Florida’s lead?

Despite widespread complaints about election fraud among Republican voters, most red state governors have not acted as aggressively as DeSantis in deterring and combating illegal voting and electioneering. Earlier this week, the DeSantis administration sent a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting information on suspected noncitizens currently registered to vote in Florida.

The Florida Department of State automatically flags anyone who self-reports as a noncitizen on a driver’s license application to ensure they are not registered to vote. However, a final determination of noncitizenship requires access to federal databases. Florida has flagged seven individuals who are registered to vote but have reported noncitizen status on their driver’s licenses. Without cooperation from the federal government, Florida cannot conclusively remove them from voter rolls without potentially disenfranchising citizens.

The letter reminds USCIS of its legal obligation to not “in any way restrict any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.” Florida investigators can access the SAVE database if they have visa ID numbers for the individuals in question. Recently, they used this access to remove 144 noncitizens from the voter rolls. However, they cannot query the seven individuals due to a lack of information on their visa ID numbers.

In a letter, Florida’s Deputy Secretary of State Brad McVay clearly states that the federal government has not readily provided this information and has not established a seamless system to do so, as proposed under H.R. 8281 by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).

What is shocking is why other states have not attempted to make a final determination, which should be straightforward based on the records of eligible drivers within the state. Every Republican-run state needs to increase the pressure by sending similar demands for information.

The fact that we don’t yet have hundreds of thousands of noncitizens registered to vote should not excuse ignoring those who are. A handful of votes often decide many local races, and noncitizens should never influence the outcome.We know why the federal government resists efforts to keep noncitizens from voting. What remains unclear is why other Republicans have not matched the aggressive stance of Florida’s governor in keeping noncitizens off the voter rolls.