Several Florida pro-life advocates filed a lawsuit yesterday after a state interim report found “widespread” fraud in the signature collection effort to place abortion Amendment 4 on the November ballot. The citizen plaintiffs seek an injunction to invalidate the amendment citing the state’s preliminary audits that found pro-abortion petitioners knowingly used forged petitions and other fraudulent means to reach the threshold number of constitutionally-required signatures.
While it is unlikely the lawsuit will yield any results prior to election day on November 5, former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson, who represents the plaintiffs, has indicated that state precedent shows if Amendment 4 passed the popular vote it could be invalidated later for illegal ballot placement.
According to the state’s interim report, published by the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS), a preliminary audit of three Florida counties – Palm Beach, Orange and Osceola Counties – revealed that an average of 16.4 percent of mistakenly verified signatures turned out be fraudulent. The report noted Amendment 4’s petitioners garnered 997,035 signatures, which exceeded the minimum required threshold of 891,523 signatures by 11.8 percent. Florida law also requires these signatures come from across the state from at least half of its congressional districts. Taking into account the average 16.4 percent invalidity rate in the three counties and applying it statewide, the lawsuit suggests the actual number of valid signatures would drop below the required threshold to 833,521.
The lawsuit reads, “Accordingly, without the substantial fraud and illegality in the petition gathering process in support of Amendment 4, it never would have qualified for ballot placement.”
Justice Lawson stated in the lawsuit that these plaintiffs “maintain the right to participate in and protect the constitutional initiative process.” One of the plaintiffs is an abortion survivor with significant head and brain injuries, and resides in a congressional district found to have an 18.4 percent invalidity rate according to the state’s interim report.
The plaintiffs are suing “Floridians Protecting Freedom” (FPF), the pro-abortion group that sponsored Amendment 4. The state’s investigations allege that FPF and its agents, including the California-based PCI Consultants, Inc., employed “known fraudsters” as paid signature gatherers who engaged in “bulk identity theft” to secure placing Amendment 4 on the 2024 ballot. Florida law requires that all paid petitioners must be registered with the state and must attest that each signature was signed in their presence. However, state’s evidence shows petitions were signed on behalf of dead people, contained forged signatures, used personal identifying information without voter consent, contained perjury and false swearing to witnessing signatures, and/or were collected on an illegal pay-per-signature basis. Florida officials note that two of FPF’s paid associates have already been arrested, charged, convicted, and sentenced for election fraud, such as forging voter signatures and submitting invalid petitions. In Florida, it is a third-degree felony for a person to pay a petition circulator based on the number of petition forms gathered and it is a first-degree misdemeanor for a person to sign an initiative petition more than once, sign another person’s name, or sign a fictitious name to any petition.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange County, also named as defendants Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, as well as 21 of the state’s Supervisors of Elections. The plaintiffs noted these state officials are named as defendants not because of any wrongdoing but rather to give the Circuit Court jurisdiction to act in this case and for their ability to investigate and invalidate the ballot petitions.
On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Florida voters will have a chance to reject or ratify Amendment 4, which is titled “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.” Amending the state’s constitution requires approval by a 60 percent majority.
Amendment 4 reads: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
Amendment 4 would make abortion a constitutional right in Florida up to birth at any time for any reason. If passed, the misleading amendment would then nullify Florida’s six-week “heartbeat” law, invalidate parental consent laws allowing minors unfettered access to abortion independently of their parents, and would also invalidate all health and safety regulations protecting women and girls during abortion procedures. Specifically, it would remove the physician requirement that mandates only licensed physicians are to perform abortions.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver stated, “The compelling evidence of fraud needs to be examined further to determine the full extent of invalid petitions. The constitutional amendment process must be free of fraud and deception, especially when it comes to the extreme and deceptive Amendment 4 that would endanger lives. Floridians deserve an honest and legal ballot process.”
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