FL Probes Alleged ‘Forged’ Signatures On Abortion Ballot Petition

A radical abortion group in Florida allegedly forged petition signatures for a proposed abortion amendment. The Florida Department of State has launched an investigation.

“Our tolerance in the state of Florida for any type of election-related fraud is zero. We are not going to put up with it,” said Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in a roundtable Monday. “This group submitted dozens of petitions on behalf of dead people.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom is pushing for an abortion amendment that would change the state constitution to protect the murder of unborn children before “viability.” According to InfluenceWatch, the group is a coalition of abortion interest organizations like Planned Parenthood and ACLU Florida. 

FPF’s paid circulators allegedly forged signatures on the amendment petition, and the Department of State’s Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) is investigating the matter. 

“The department of state has uncovered evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions,” said Mark Ard, the department’s director of external affairs, in a statement to The Federalist. “We have a duty to seek justice for Florida citizens who were victimized by fraud and safeguard the integrity of Florida’s elections.”

ACLU Florida, a member of FPF, echoed left-wing media coverage on X.

“The DeSantis administration is not investigating voter fraud; it’s investigating people who support reproductive rights, and that should be a violation of the First Amendment,” ACLU Florida posted, quoting a story in The Nation.

Uncovering Possible Fraud

Brad McVay, deputy secretary of state for legal affairs and election integrity, referred the alleged fraud to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in a July 11 letter obtained by The Federalist. 

“We have received some alarming information from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office over the past several months regarding fraudulent constitutional initiative petitions received from Floridians Protecting Freedom,” reads the letter. “Circulators appear to have forged the voters’ signatures and inserted the voters’ personal identifiable information into the petitions without consent.”

FPF submitted petition signatures to the Palm Beach County elections supervisor, who identified residents “as not having actually signed the initiative petitions,” according to the letter. The supervisor then obtained signed complaints from the affected residents.

McVay sent a supplement to that letter on Sept. 10, also obtained by The Federalist, featuring more examples of alleged petition fraud and complaints from targeted residents. The supplement included signatures ranging from June 2023 to October 2023. 

“My name was forged on a petition ‘limiting government interference w/abortion.’ Luckily the supervisor of elections caught it and sent me a letter,” one resident wrote in a 2023 complaint. “The responsible party should be prosecuted.”

Others said they had not signed petitions, claiming “fraud” and that their signatures were “forged.”

One signature dated Oct. 27, 2023, was flagged because the voter was “deceased” as of several weeks earlier — Oct. 1, 2023. 

“Circulators also signed petitions on behalf of individuals who were deceased at the time the petition was allegedly signed,” reads the letter.

Officials will continue the investigation, and when appropriate, refer cases to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, according to Ard. 

He said the Office of Election Crimes and Security gives police and prosecutors “an office solely focused on scouring records, receiving complaints, and sifting through thousands of complaints to identify cases where there is a clear showing of criminality” in elections.

Four people have been charged with petition fraud on the abortion initiative since February, according to a press release, and nine have been charged with petition fraud more broadly. 

Big Players, Dark Money

FPF is composed of groups with interests in advancing abortion. These groups include Planned Parenthood and ACLU Florida, along with the radical group Florida Rising and a chapter of the big-money, left-wing union SEIU.

Taylor Aguilera, the group’s organizing director, has worked for the state Democrat Party and Planned Parenthood, according to LinkedIn. 

FPF’s primary goal has been to pass the abortion amendment, and it has lapped the measure’s opponents by tens of millions in spending, according to InfluenceWatch.

The group is backed by some of the most notorious funding sources in politics. One of the FPF’s largest donors, InfluenceWatch reported, is the Tides Foundation which has given at least $3.2 million. The foundation is a behemoth, reporting revenues of $2.6 billion since 2007. It uses the “collective power” of multiple donors to bankroll leftist causes. As The Federalist previously reported, the foundation funded anti-Israel protests across the country this spring.

The FPF has also taken money from the Open Society Fund of billionaire George Soros and the Sixteen Thirty Fund of the leftist dark money powerhouse Arabella Advisors. Its other funders include the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, along with some of their affiliated local groups.

“This whole thing with the petitions — there’s a lot of seedy activity that goes on. These people come in from out of state,” DeSantis said in his Monday roundtable. “I think there [were] a lot of things going on that [weren’t] right. So that is going to be investigated.”

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.