FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) – The battle over placing a recreational marijuana amendment on the statewide ballot once again continued as investigators for the state of Florida visited the office of the Broward Supervisor of Elections in connection to alleged fraudulent signatures, Monday.
After the amendment to legalize marijuana came up short of the 60% threshold required during the 2024 election, the group Smart & Safe Florida began gathering signatures from supporters for a petition to put the initiative on the ballot once more. The original amendment would have allowed people 21 years old and older to possess about three ounces of marijuana, and it would have allowed businesses already growing and selling medical marijuana to sell it to them.
Those petitions filled with signatures are then taken to the offices of election supervisors to be validated. For the initiative to be placed on the ballot in the state, there needs to be 800,000 valid signatures supporting the measure.
Laws surrounding those petitions have since gotten tougher, with changes backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Signatures won’t count for voters who are deemed “inactive” and officials also can’t count any by out-of-state petitioners.
On Monday, a statewide prosecutor wrote a letter to Broward Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott, claiming some fraudulent signatures originated there.
“We have reason to believe that a number of these petitions contain forged signatures or are otherwise fraudulent in nature,” the letter said.
The letter goes on to say that “we believe 27 of the Smart & Safe Florida circulators who were terminated for petition fraud(and who are currently subjects of active criminal investigations) had initiative petitions in support… submitted to your office.”
It also said Broward “invalidated approximately 535” signatures while it “validated approximately 302.”
Following this revelation, the state said it would send a team to look at the material in question.
“The prosecutors will work alongside two [Florida Department of Law Enforcement] election crime agents to obtain copies of petitions and other relevant documents,” the letter stated.
7News reached out to Scott for comment on the investigation, who released this statement:
“We are aware of an ongoing criminal investigation involving the recreational marijuana initiative. My team and I are doing our part by providing information requested by authorities. We remain committed to serving the people of Broward County with the excellence and transparency they expect from us.”
As of Monday afternoon, state officials have gathered around 600,000 signatures supporting the proposed ballot initiative. The deadline to pass the necessary threshold to be put on the ballot is Feb. 1.
7News reached out to Smart & Safe Florida but they had no comment.
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