Op-Ed: Florida officials find plenty of fraud in Amendment 4 signature drive

Illegal payments, multi-state operatives, dead voters’ signatures, stolen identities and perjury. What do these have in common? They permeate the petition process used to put Florida’s extreme abortion amendment before voters this election.

A recent report by Florida’s Office of Election Crimes paints a grim picture of the fraud and deception used to put Amendment 4 on the ballot.

Amendment 4 is the left’s latest attempt to use ballot measures and misleading campaigns to hoodwink voters into locking essentially unrestricted abortion into state constitutions. Floridians Protecting Freedom is the group behind that effort in Florida.

Despite the name, this is not an organic grassroots organization. It is the product of national liberal special interests, and some of the largest contributors are out-of-state organizations like George Soros’ Open Society Fund, the Fairness Project, the Tides Foundation and the Sixteen Thirty Fund – a known pipeline for foreign influence in our elections.

These liberal mega-donors and their allies have pumped over $100 million into the campaign for Amendment 4.

Just two years ago, Florida led the nation in tackling election fraud by creating OECS. Despite widespread criticism from the left, this specialized division of investigators has repeatedly demonstrated its utility. Its latest report is yet another example.

Over the course of several months, election officials throughout Florida reported abnormalities in Amendment 4 petitions. Complaints even came from one of FPF’s own subcontractors. While the investigation is ongoing, the interim report details a troubling amount of fraud.

Florida’s Constitution required 891,523 voter signatures to put Amendment 4 on the ballot. Florida banned groups from using pay-per-signature in 2019 because it incentivizes fraud and leads to false and duplicate signatures.

Nonetheless, FPF subcontractors used this illegal payment scheme and even advertised it on social media. Florida also requires petition circulators to be registered with the state and sign petitions in the presence of the voter.

Instead, it was a “widespread” practice for registered circulators to give pre-signed forms to unregistered circulators for use in gathering signatures, a crime for both the registered and unregistered circulators.

Investigators discovered circulators submitted petitions on behalf of deceased voters, used stolen identities, and even altered forms after voters signed them. This is like changing a contract after it was signed.

Petition circulators were also instructed to lie to obtain signatures. One circulator — convicted of Amendment 4 petition fraud — said he was instructed to tell voters the issue was “to keep the state of Florida from taking away women’s rights…not necessarily abortion.”

Alarmingly, this conduct is widespread and par for the course. Two petition circulators charged with petition fraud in Florida also face dozens of charges for petition fraud related to the 2022 abortion ballot measure in Kansas.

Both offenders were on a “do not buy” list maintained by an FPF subcontractor, yet somehow, they were allowed to submit thousands of petitions across the state of Florida for the 2024 ballot measure.

Changing a state constitution is no light matter. There are 26 states that allow changes to their state constitutions using a ballot initiative. Theoretically, this process is a direct form of democracy. As of late, ballot initiatives are being deliberately and grossly manipulated by the Left to bypass state legislatures and turn states blue.

Michigan’s experience demonstrates how easily left-wing “dark money” groups can use ballot initiatives to drive liberal turnout in tight elections and profoundly change a state’s political makeup and government.

In 2018, a measure on legalizing marijuana was used to drive voter turnout. That same election, voters approved a measure forcing new congressional and legislative maps through so-called “independent” redistricting.

In 2022, the first election under the new maps, liberals used a radical pro-abortion ballot measure to drive progressives to the polls. Democrats took complete control of state government. That same election, voters passed a voting “rights” amendment via ballot measure that eviscerated common sense election integrity measures.

Unsurprisingly, funding for these ballot measures came from out-of-state organizations dedicated to advancing left-wing ideologies. Now, Florida is being hit with its own Michigan-style abortion measure, and Democrats aren’t even trying to hide that they are weaponizing ballot measures to turn deep-red Florida blue .

Despite fraud, forgery, and deception, the Left’s effort to change Florida’s constitution is on the ballot. If the past is any indication of the future, they are in it to win and will do so by any means necessary.

This will not stop with Amendment 4 or with this election. States must learn from what we’ve seen, strengthen their laws, and bolster investigative and enforcement mechanisms to protect themselves and their citizens.

Jackie Doyer is the legal policy director of Honest Elections Project Action