Florida’s recently created Office of Election Crimes and Security is accusing Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organizers of Amendment 4, of widespread fraud.
Florida’s recently created Office of Election Crimes and Security is accusing Floridians Protecting Freedom, the organizers of Amendment 4, of widespread fraud.
In a 350-page report recently released, the state said Floridians Protecting Freedom broke the law when collecting petition signatures for the amendment, which if passed would overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
The report alleges some petition circulators working to gather signatures were paid per petition they collected, signed for deceased individuals, forged or misrepresented signatures and committed perjury.
MORE ON AMENDMENT 4
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
Yes On 4’s campaign director, Lauren Brenzel denies any wrongdoing.
"Ask yourself why this is happening now?” Brenzel said in a statement. "It's because our campaign is winning and the government is trying to do everything it can to stop Floridians from having the rights they deserve."
"These latest attempts are just to try to get in the media, more negative information just to confuse the public. Why? Because everything this else they have tried to do has not been successful,” said Dr. Cecilia Grande, an OBGYN who helped gather petition signatures.
In Broward County, the Supervisor of Elections office reports it received a total of 149,896 signatures for Amendment 4 and validated 99,946 of them.
"When you look at that it shows we did a thorough job of making sure the petitions we accepted were in fact legitimate petitions,” said Broward County Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott.
Scott’s concern is that the state’s report could influence voters when casting their ballot.
"There are bad actors out there, of course there are. But that doesn’t mean the petition or the amendment is invalid or shouldn’t be on the ballot or anything like that. I hope nobody draws that conclusion from this news,” said Scott.
"The campaign has been run above board and followed state law at every turn,” adds Brenzel. What we are seeing now is nothing more than dishonest distractions and desperate attempts to silence voters.”
