PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – The Florida secretary of state defended an investigation into petition fraud Sunday, as advocates gather signatures to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution through the proposed Amendment 4 — subject to a referendum on the November ballot.
Cord Byrd, a Republican from Jacksonville, assumed office in 2022, the same year Gov. Ron DeSantis created the Office of Election Crimes and Security, a police force that the legislature supported with funding. The police force is handling the signature petition fraud probe.
During This Week In South Florida, Byrd told Local 10 News Anchor Glenna Milberg that such fraud is a widespread problem.
“We have literally foreign billionaires, people from Europe, who are coming into the United States and funding these petition initiatives, and it’s happening in Florida. What they do is they pay out-of-state petition gatherers,” Byrd said adding that it is illegal in Florida to pay people per signature.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been critical of the Floridians Protecting Freedom, a political committee supporting a ballot initiative campaign on Amendment 4. According to Open Secrets, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is among the top five donors of the committee.
The DeSantis administration has responded to the Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which regulates abortion clinics, launched the Florida Cares campaign on Sept. 5 saying “Amendment 4 threatens women’s safety.”
When state agents visited Florida residents at home to verify if they had signed petitions in support of Amendment 4, Democrats criticized the visits as voter intimidation and interference.
Byrd said investigators identified a group of fraudulent petition gatherers with a high rate of signatures submitted to Supervisor of Elections Offices. The fraud, he said, included petitions on behalf of dead voters.
“In some cases, upwards of 50% of their signatures were fraudulent,” Byrd said about the petition gatherers’ cases.
Byrd reported most of the investigations were in Orange, Osceola, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach counties.
“In Osceola County, it was one of the election workers who saw it was her job to verify the petitions and saw her name, her address, and then her forged signature in one of these petitions,” Byrd said.
Florida requires at least 60% of the voters to pass Amendment 4, which legalizes abortion until the fetus is viable as determined by a healthcare provider. If it passes, it would veto the law DeSantis signed to ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
For information on how to submit an election fraud complaint to Florida’s election crimes office visit this page or call 1-877-868-3737.