Florida Residents Sue to Void Abortion Amendment on November Ballot

Long after ballots were printed, and just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, an abortion-related citizen initiative to amend the Florida Constitution is in legal jeopardy over alleged fraud in the gathering of signatures.
The proposed amendment 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.”
A 60 percent majority vote is required for the ballot measures to pass, which would make abortion a constitutional right in Florida.
An OECS investigation of the measure’s petitions in Osceola, Palm Beach, and Orange counties projected that 16.4 percent of mistakenly verified signatures were fraudulent.
According to the OECS report, entities working for the adoption of Amendment 4 gathered 997,035 signatures statewide, 11.8 percent more than the ballot qualifying threshold of 891,523.
The plaintiffs allege that, if the 16.4 percent invalid signature rate occurred statewide, the petition drive would have fallen short by 163,514 signatures.
The plaintiffs also asked the Orange County Circuit Court to enjoin the defendants—state and county election officials—from counting and posting the results of any votes cast on Amendment 4 in the General Election.
No state official is accused of wrongdoing in the complaint.
Under Amendment 4, Florida’s parental consent laws pertaining to abortion would be invalidated. It would also eliminate the law that mandates an abortion be performed by a licensed physician and do away with other health and safety provisions.
Based on evidence in the OECS report, the complaint alleges that, in cooperation with PCI Consultants of California and other signature-gathering agents, FPF hired “known fraudsters” to circulate petitions and individuals who allegedly engaged in “bulk identity theft.”
The allegations are bolstered by evidence collected by OECS investigators who found petitions laden with forged signatures, including those of voters known to be deceased.
OECS investigators said that some petition circulators, after forging voters’ signatures, used their personal information without their consent in filling out petition forms, which is a violation of Florida law.
Some circulators falsely swore to have personally witnessed signings of the petitions by voters, according to the complaint.
Petition circulators were allegedly paid per signature, a practice that is illegal.
FPF campaign director Lauren Brenzel called the lawsuit “a deeply troubling anti-democratic … use of the judiciary.”
PCI Consultants did not respond to requests for comment.
Mat Staver, chairman of the pro-life legal group, Liberty Counsel, said of the petition signature findings, “The compelling evidence of fraud needs to be examined further to determine the full extent of invalid petitions.