Ron DeSantis "Witch Hunt" Over Florida Abortion Rights Sparks Controversy.

State police are showing up at Florida voters’ homes to question them about signing a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on the ballot in November, and a state health care agency has launched a website targeting the ballot initiative with politically charged language.

Democrats are accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of going on a witch hunt to find fraudulent Amendment 4 petitions that helped place a measure to protect abortion rights on the November ballot.

At a virtual press conference, elected officials and party leaders slammed DeSantis for what they said was a weaponization of state resources to fight Amendment 4.

Election police have knocked on doors questioning people who signed the petitions to put the issue on the ballot, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Critics say they're the latest efforts by Florida's Republican elected officials to leverage state resources to try to block the abortion rights measure, moves which some Democratic officials argue could violate state laws against voter intimidation.

“Ron (DeSantis) has repeatedly used state power to interfere with a citizen-led process to get reproductive freedom on the ballot," Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told reporters on Monday. “This is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day.”

The ballot initiative known as Amendment 4 would enshrine abortion rights in Florida law. If approved by 60% of voters, the procedure would remain legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, called the searches “political theater by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cronies who are just so desperate to maintain Florida’s near total abortion ban that they were fishing for any type of information.”

DeSantis said the Florida Department of State found one group that collected petitions on behalf of dead people. Other petition signatures did not match the voter files, he said.

“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,” DeSantis said Monday as he warned that fraudulent petitions will be forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Democrats said Monday that they didn’t buy DeSantis’ claims. The pointed out that county Supervisor of Elections’ Offices — led by elected officials from both parties — approved the nearly 1 million petitions for Amendment 4, and the Florida Department of State also verified them.

Critics say the investigation is a brazen attempt to intimidate voters in the country’s third-largest state from protecting access to abortion — and the latest in a series of efforts by the governor's administration to target Amendment 4.

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