#Florida is reportedly 💥sending police officers to the homes of people who signed a #petition supporting an #abortion #rights ballot #initiative.

Florida Governor #Ron #DeSantis’s administration has begun ❌investigating thousands of verified signatures that helped to put a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion on the ballot in November.
The amendment would overturn Florida’s current six-week abortion ban.

Petition organizers collected about 100,000 more signatures than they needed, surpassing the 900,000 that are required by the state and ensuring that their policy would be on the ballot.
Now the Department of State’s spokesperson Ryan Ash claims that his agency has “uncovered evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions.”

Supervisors in Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Osceola, Alachua, and Broward counties have been requested to gather around 36,000 signatures for state review, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
One supervisor with 16 years of experience told the Times that the state’s request was entirely unprecedented.

Not only had the state requested signatures that had already been verified, but they did so for a validated petition, not a rejected petition, which are typically the basis of fraud investigations.

https://newrepublic.com/post/185704/florida-police-state-abortion-ballot-initiative