Amendment 4 in Florida was defeated in November as voters refused to overturn the state’s current laws protecting preborn children and make abortion a constitutional right through all nine months of pregnancy. The group behind the ballot initiative, Floridians Protecting Freedom, was repeatedly accused of fraud, and now, it’s being forced to pay up.
The Florida Office of Election Crimes & Security (OECS) opened over 100 fraud investigations into signatures obtained by Floridians Protecting Freedom in its effort to get Amendment 4 onto the November ballot. Two people from the organization were even arrested for forging signatures and were eventually put in jail.
A memo from the Florida Department of State sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senate President Ben Albritton, and House Speaker Daniel Perez revealed that Floridians Protecting Freedom had already paid $186,000 in fines, and had agreed to pay another $164,000 in fines in December, for violating Florida election laws.
The memo also said some of the subcontractors working for Floridians Protecting Freedom were being investigated for allegedly paying people to sign the Amendment 4 petition. “Several entities linked to FPF were so brazen as to advertise this illegal arrangement on social media websites,” the memo said. “This illegal scheme is likely driving the petition fraud outlined above. If a circulator is paid per signature, circulators are incentivized to forge as many signatures as possible to make a quick and easy buck. OECS has referred a handful of pay-per petition cases to law enforcement and prosecutors.”
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Floridians Protecting Freedom, the memo said, was likely aware these individuals were fraudsters.
“It has also become clear that a significant number of paid petition circulators used by FPF were known by FPF’s agents to be fraudsters before being utilized for petition gathering,” the memo said. “Over 55 paid circulators who submitted petitions for Initiative Petition 23-07 appeared on a ‘Do Not Buy’ list circulated in the industry. Based on information and belief, PCI Consultants, Inc. maintains the ‘Do Not Buy’ list. Additionally, many of these same paid FPF circulators are not Florida residents and have very minimal, if any, Florida ties, and some have significant criminal histories.”
It was also alleged that Floridians Protecting Freedom did not maintain proper records, and has refused to cooperate with state authorities regarding their investigations into the accusations of fraud.
Tell President Trump, RFK, Jr., Elon, and Vivek:
Stop killing America’s future. Defund Planned Parenthood NOW!
