Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration is sending law enforcement officers to homes to question Floridians who signed petitions to place an abortion amendment on the November ballot. The questioning appears to be part of an effort to inspect thousands of petitions concerning a measure to overturn the state's six-week abortion ban, instead protecting abortion access until the point of viability, the Tampa Bay Times reports—despite the fact that the signatures have already been verified.
Florida's secretary of state, who was appointed by DeSantis, has ordered elections supervisors in several counties to send at least 36,000 petition forms already found to have been signed by real people to the state government. Past fraud investigations have been centered on rejected petitions, but the state did not ask for those this time. One 16-year elections supervisor called the request unprecedented. It was DeSantis who signed the six-week legislation into law, and he's organized opposition to the ballot measure. The amendment proposal reads, "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health," per WTVT.
In another move, the state Agency for Health Care Administration has publicly opposed the ballot proposal, per the New York Times. Its website now says at the top: "Florida Is Protecting Life. Don't let the fearmongers lie to you." Organizers turned in petitions with more than 1 million signatures, 100,000 more than was required. Supporters of the amendment called the state investigation political interference.
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A Lee County voter says he was left shaken by the visit of a plainclothes officer, who twice asked if he'd signed the petition. He said the officer brought a copy of his driver's license and other documents. Another voter said she felt intimidated when an officer came to her home. "It didn't surprise me that they were doing something like this to try to debunk these petitions to get it taken off of the ballot," Becky Castellanos said. (More Florida stories.)
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