The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to fast-track a case to determine whether DeSantis and other state officials improperly used their power to defeat the abortion initiative on the Nov. ballot as Amendment 4. PHOTO BY KEVIN HICKS FOR SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES

Miami – A Palm Beach County attorney has filed a Florida Supreme Court complaint against Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials for allegedly using their power to interfere with Florida Constitutional Amendment 4, the right of women to have an abortion without government restrictions.

The Florida Supreme court has agreed to fast-track a case to determine whether DeSantis and other state officials improperly used their power to stymie the abortion rights amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot, the Miami Herald reported.

Attorney Adam Richardson filed the complaint asking a court to order state officials to show what authority they have for performing specific actions related to Amendment 4.

The request comes after the governor announced earlier this month that his administration will examine thousands of the amendment’s petition signatures, looking for fraud.

In addition, two federal lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Attorney General to investigate DeSantis for allegedly abusing his power to fight against Amendment 4.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston) and Maxwell Frosst (D-10) accused DeSantis of using his power to sabotage and intimidate abortion advocates campaigning to have abortion rights restored in the Florida Constitution.

“We request that you investigate the Florida government’s recent abuses related to Amendment 4, the Right to Abortion Initiative, which would restore the right to an abortion up to viability,” the letter states. “Governor DeSantis, who has been vocal about his opposition to Amendment 4, has leveraged his government to sabotage, suppress votes, and campaign against it. These actions constitute an abuse of official resources to undermine political opponents. Ensuring the honesty of our elections is of the greatest importance, which is why there are measures in place to ensure the validity of state constitutional amendment votes. The Governor’s undemocratic actions undermine the rights of Floridians.”

Wasserman Shultz said state police have been showing up at Florida voters’ homes to question them about signing a petition to get the abortion rights amendment on the ballot during the presidential race.

The state police even had copies of their birth certificates and other official documents to verify their signatures. In addition, a state health care agency has launched a website targeting the ballot initiative with politically charged language.

Critics say Republicans are pulling out all the stops to stymie the abortion rights ballot and DeSantis’ action could be a violation of state law, which prohibits government officials from intimidating voters.

“Ron DeSantis has repeatedly used state power to interfere with a citizenled process to get reproductive freedom on the ballot,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement. “This is their latest desperate attempt before Election Day.” DeSantis, who was in Miami Lakes for a roundtable discussion on condo laws this week, said police visiting homes of petition signers, and a state health care agency to create a website targeting the ballot amendment is an initiative to make sure November’s vote is fair.

He said the police have found evidence that some of the supposed signatures were from dead people.

“Anyone who submitted a petition that is a valid voter, that is totally within their rights to do it,” DeSantis said. “We are not investigating that. What they are investigating is fraudulent petitions. We know that this group did submit on behalf of dead people.”

In an attempt to keep Amendment 4 off the November ballot, DeSantis’ administration claims the signatures on the petition didn’t meet the threshold required to place it on the ballot because some of the signatures were fraudulent.

His administration is calling for a probe to determine if the signatures supporting abortion rights are justified.

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link, a DeSatnis appointee, told reporters the signatures in question never counted toward the total required to place it before voters in November.

She also said DeSantis’ administration has yet to prove the signatures were fraudulent and helped place Amendment 4 on the ballot.

As a normal procedure to determine if a petition is legitimate and has met all requirements before putting it before voters, state investigators reviewed all tens of thousands signatures and determined they were legal.

DeSantis has been campaigning to defeat Amendment 4 which would repeal Florida’s six-month abortion ban he sponsored and passed in the Republican-controlled legislature. It went into effect in 2023.

DeSantis said Florida would become the destination for abortion if the revision of Florida’s Constitution were approved.

If approved by 60 percent of voters, the procedure would remain legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient’s health care provider. Frost and Wasserman Shultz said DeSantis is undermining Amendment 4 despite the signatures on the petition exceeding the amount required to place it on the ballot.

They said two experienced Florida election supervisors have said DeSantis’ action is highly unusual, therefore, a federal probe should be launched against the governor.

“Earlier this year, Floridians Protecting Freedom surpassed the number of signatures needed to place Amendment 4 on the ballot this November, giving Floridians a chance to roll back Governor DeSantis’s broadly unpopular, restrictive abortion law,” the letter said. “Since then, local election supervisors, as well as independent groups, including the anti-abortion Liberty Counsel Action—who examined the petitions with ‘a fine-tooth comb’— have reviewed signatures for fraud and found nothing that would challenge the amendment’s status.”

The letter also said several months after the deadline to challenge the validity of the signatures, the DeSantis administration had ordered state officials to produce thousands of signatures related to the Amendment 4 petition spread across five Florida counties, offering little insight into its reasoning.

“While past petition fraud cases have originated with invalid or obviously fraudulent signatures and examined all other signatures, the DeSantis administration is only asking for signatures that were already deemed valid and has not provided much public information about why it launched an investigation or what it is looking for,” the letter stated.