Challenging Florida Voters
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 18, 2024
In case you were wondering about official gimmicking around the election, here comes Florida special election police once again.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ special election policing agents are going door-to-door to challenge signatures on the petition that put the abortion issue on the November ballot.
DeSantis says he is seeking to assure a zero-tolerance adherence to electioneering in the state, maintaining that his office got “lots of complaints” about bad signatures among the 910,946 already certified by the state.
Anyone else looking at this might just suggest it is a move to intimidate voters and a snarky way to challenge any outcome that would overrule the state’s new ban on abortions after six weeks.
There’s been local coverage of the issue after at least two voters complained about election police visiting their homes, armed with folders of signature records, to compare just how exact the petition signers had been in calling for November’s referendum.
Amendment 4 on the ballot would overturn the legislature’s abortion ban, so a “no” vote would retain the new law and a “yes” would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. This is the bill that even Donald Trump, as a Florida voter, said bothered him because most women would not even know they were pregnant, until criticism from his evangelic voter based prompted him to change his mind.
Checking Signatures
When the agent from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed up at Isaac Menasche’s Fort Meyers home, he showed the homeowner a folder with 10 pages of personal information and previous signatures. Menashche, 71, said he signed in more than one way on different documents, adding that he found the visit disturbing.
Advocates for the ballot measure picked up on Menasche’s experience to conclude that DeSantis is using the powers of the state to derail the referendum — a reasonable conclusion. If you hear that the state is tracking you down for your vote, just maybe you’re not going to cast a ballot.
The state also has launched a website that argues that nullifying the six-week law “threatens women’s safety.”
Over the last two years since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, when abortion rights have on the ballot even in red states, they have been adopted in popular vote.
DeSantis was quick to rise to defend his election policing unit, as he has in its brief, but spectacularly awful history since 2022.
The unit reports that it has fielded thousands of complaints, but has made only a few dozen arrests, most of which have involved former felons who were accused of breaking the ever-changing law by voting. Florida restored voting rights for most felons through a constitutional referendum in 2018, except for convicted murder or felony sexual offenders. Several of those charged said they were unaware certain felons could not vote and that they applied for voter registration cards, which the state granted.
Indeed, a number of the prosecuted cases were dismissed over jurisdiction issues, prompting the legislature to change the law. Florida is spending about $3 million a year to challenge a handful of voter registration issues — some of which had previously been approved.
The Petition Rules
For the abortion petition, proponents had to collect 891,523 signatures verified by the state Division of Elections by Feb. 1. They got a million, and more than 910,000 were certified in January.
Elections investigators began reviewing petitions last year for proposed ballot issues including the abortion rights proposal as well as other measures, such as a vote on recreational marijuana. In February and March, the agency announced charges against three people accused of submitting 50 fraudulent petitions for the abortion amendment. A separate investigation that started before the Amendment 4 drive began alleges that two people used the names of dead people on “multiple constitutional amendment initiatives.”
The DeSantis administration also has sought to derail the abortion referendum with court filings requiring financial impact, which was sustained.
Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF), the coalition backing Amendment 4, had hired PCI Consultants to collect signatures. The California-based firm was previously used in Florida for campaigns to legalize medical marijuana and restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies, and has experience in checking signatures.
To be credible, it would seem as if Florida officials should have done this checking as part of its certification months ago. It’s no wonder it comes off as intimidating to voters that the state would just as soon not cast a ballot.
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