Police question Florida voters about signing abortion petition

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — State police are showing up at the homes of Florida voters to question them about whether they signed a petition to Change in abortion law is on the ballot in November, and a state health agency has set up a website that uses politically charged language to oppose the ballot initiative.

Critics say this is the latest effort by Republican officials in Florida to use state funds to block abortion rights, a move Democratic officials argue could violate state laws against voter intimidation.

“Ron (DeSantis) has repeatedly used state power to obstruct a citizen-led process to put reproductive freedom on the ballot,” Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, told reporters Monday. “This is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day.”

The ballot initiative, known as Amendment 4, would enshrine the right to abortion in Florida law. If 60 percent of voters approve, the procedure would be legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient's doctor.

Isaac Menasche, one of almost a million people who signed the petition to vote on the bill said that last week in Lee County, in southwest Florida, a police officer knocked on his door and asked him if he wanted to sign the petition.

The official said the questioning was part of an investigation into alleged petition fraud. Tampa Bay Times reported.

“I'm not someone who goes out and protests against abortion,” Menasche told the newspaper. “I just had a strong feeling and took the opportunity when the person asked me to say, 'Yes, I will sign this petition.'”

Critics say the investigation is a brazen attempt to intimidate voters in the nation's third-largest state from protecting abortion access, and the latest in a series of efforts by the governor's administration to crack down on Amendment 4.

“Nearly a million Floridians across the state and across party lines put Amendment 4 on the ballot. They believe that people, not politicians, have the freedom to make their own decisions about their health care,” Lauren Brenzel, the director of the Yes on 4 campaign, said in an email. “But the state will stop at nothing to maintain its near-total ban on abortion.”

Florida law currently prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy before many women even know they are pregnant.

At a news conference in South Florida on Monday, DeSantis defended police visits to the homes of petition signers and a separate push by a state health agency to create a website devoted to the voting change, both measures aimed at ensuring a fair vote in November.

DeSantis signed a law in 2022 to create a State Police is dedicated to investigating electoral fraud and electoral crime. Election fraud is raretypically occurs in isolated cases and is generally recognized.

He said election police were going to the homes of signatories of the petitions putting Amendment 4 on the ballot not to intimidate them but because doubts had been raised about the legitimacy of the signatures. He said police had found evidence that some of the alleged signatures were from dead people.

“Anyone who has filed a petition and is therefore a valid voter has the right to do so,” DeSantis said. “We are not investigating that. What they are investigating are fraudulent petitions. We know that this group filed on behalf of dead people.”

A deadline in State law The opportunity to challenge the validity of the signatures has long since passed, but county election officials across Florida say they have received requests from state agencies to release verified signatures on the petition as part of a state investigation.

Mary Jane Arrington, a Democrat who has been elections supervisor in Osceola County in central Florida for 16 years, told the Associated Press she had never received a request like this before.

Arrington said she didn't know what to make of the state's request to review signatures her office had already verified.

“These are the ones where we found the petition to be valid, both in terms of completeness and the match of their signature to the voter's signature that we have on file,” Arrington said. “They said they were … investigating petition signature fraud.”

The state's election crime unit has launched more than 40 investigations into paid signature collectors working for the Amendment 4 campaign, according to a letter from Deputy Secretary of State Brad McVay describing alleged fraudulent signatures in Palm Beach County and obtained by the AP.

Judges have rejected previous criminal proceedings by the controversial Office of Election Crimes and Security.

Meanwhile, a state health agency launched a new website last week dedicated to the Fourth Amendment. The landing page proclaims, “Florida protects life” and warns, “Don't let the alarmists lie to you.”

DeSantis said the page, created by Florida's health department, is funded by a budget the agency has for public notices. He said the page is not political but provides Floridians with “factual information” about the change.

“Everything that is released is factual. It's not an election campaign,” DeSantis said at the press conference, adding, “I'm glad they're doing it.”

Florida is one of nine states where measures protecting access to abortion may be put on the ballot in 2024.

Republicans in Florida have used several other strategies to prevent the vote on the state's abortion laws. Florida's Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody attempted to the Supreme Court of the State to keep abortion off the ballot. Abortion rights activists later criticized a financial impact statement that was supposed to be placed on the ballot alongside the proposed amendment as an attempt to mislead voters. The state Supreme Court ruled in August that the language could remain on the ballot.

Meanwhile, abortion opponents and GOP allies across the country are using a Series of strategies to counter proposed ballot initiatives aimed at protecting reproductive rights. This tactic These included legislative efforts to pass competing ballot bills that could confuse voters, as well as months of delays caused by lawsuits over the wording of ballot initiatives.

In Nebraska, for example, citizens are awaiting the state Supreme Court's decision on three lawsuits seeking to remove abortion from the ballot. And the Missouri Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in an appeal of a lower court ruling that an abortion rights campaign does not meet the legal requirements to be eligible for the November ballot. ___

This story was first published on September 9, 2024. It was updated on September 10, 2024 to correct that the letter describing the allegedly fraudulent petitions referred to Palm Beach County and was not addressed to Palm Beach County.

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Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale contributed to this report.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.