Florida Democrats call on DOJ to investigate DeSantis’ abortion amendment review

TALLAHASSEE — Nearly all of Florida’s congressional Democrats have sent a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration over its decision to review thousands of already verified abortion amendment petitions.

In the letter, the Democrats said they are “fully supportive of robust, transparent investigations into instances of signature fraud,” but said “the DeSantis administration’s tardy, opaque, unusual, and redundant investigation does not appear to be of this nature.”

Florida’s secretary of state certified Amendment 4 for November ballots in late January after the group sponsoring the amendment got nearly 1 million validated petitions in support. The amendment, which DeSantis opposes, would protect abortion access in the state until viability, generally considered to be about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

In the past few weeks, the Florida Department of State has contacted at least six county elections offices, asking them to pull about 37,000 verified signatures for review for potential fraud.

One county supervisor told the Tampa Bay Times the requests were unprecedented. The state’s request focused on verified signatures, not rejected petitions, which have been the basis for past fraud cases.

The letter from the congressional Democrats also asks the federal agency to look into an anti-Amendment 4 website posted last week by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. The website claims that the amendment “threatens women’s safety.”

DeSantis has defended the website, saying it and a related advertisement were a “public service announcement” and that all the information was accurate. (The Florida Supreme Court earlier this week fast-tracked a case against DeSantis and others that alleges the state website violates laws that prohibit state officers from using their official power to interfere with elections.)

The Democrats, in the letter, say the governor’s intent with the website and the petition review is to intimidate people out of voting for Amendment 4.

“Floridians, including the hundreds of thousands who contributed a signature in the hopes that they could vote to restore women’s right to bodily autonomy, deserve the freedom to cast a ballot in November untainted by illegal political ploys,” the letter says.

Seven of Florida’s eight congressional Democrats signed the letter, including U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor of Tampa, Maxwell Frost of Orlando and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston. Rep. Jared Moskowitz is the only U.S. House member from Florida who didn’t sign.

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the sponsors of Amendment 4, did not provide a comment.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office did not immediately return a request for comment, nor did the Department of Justice.

This is a developing story and may be updated.