- Two investigations are currently underway regarding the petition drive.
- The failure rate within the campaign is high, in the 60-70% range.
- Florida Voters in Charge is working with investigators on the matter.
Florida Voters in Charge, a group backed by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, has been working for many months now to bring commercial casino gaming to the Sunshine State. Over 800,000 signatures were submitted during the campaign drive, but it was not enough to place the initiative on the November ballot. Now, it seems the effort is under fire for petition fraud and failure rate allegations.
Two investigations are underway and more may be coming as details emerge involving the campaign.
Unprecedented Failure Rate Suggests Fraud
Florida Voters in Charge had to come up with hundreds of thousands of official signatures to get the casino initiative on the ballot. This is a tall order, as each signature must come from a registered voter. In the case of the signatures produced, Florida Voters in Charge has seen a failure rate of around 60 to 70 percent. This is quite high and suggests that bad petitions may have been used.
For the group, officials did acknowledge that there are reports connected to fraud involving the petition drive. The committee says that there may have been a few circulators that were bad and investigations into the issue are welcome.
Sarah Bascom, a spokesperson for the committee, stating that they are encouraging a thorough review and will turn over all information from the drive to prosecutors and investigators in the case to review the petition gatherers.
Supervisors of the elections spoke with Florida Politics, and they say the problem is worse than the gathers of the signature petitions. Wesley Wilcox is the Marion County Supervisor of Elections, who stated that he has been conducting elections for more than three decades and this effort has been the worst operation he has ever seen. Others stated that same.
Wilcox sent what he feels is fraudulent petitions to the Secretary of State and 5th Circuit State Attorney in Florida. The documents will be reviewed as part of the investigation.
Suspected Fraud from January
As January came to a close, reports of fraud began to surface involving petition circulators. In the northwest region of Florida, and investigation was opened by the 1st Judicial Circuit State Attorney. While it is not uncommon to come across issues with such drives, it seems the evidence is overwhelming that fraud was taking place.
GameDay Strategies was hired by Florida Voters in Charge to conduct the petition process. GameDay Strategies has come out with a statement, saying they are not a signature gathering or canvassing firm. They hired subcontractors to complete the petition drive.
The group says that is there is widespread petition fraud, then Florida Voters in Charge, the funders of the campaign, and GameDay Strategies are victims.
About the Author
