Florida Republicans had reason to be pleased with the state’s elections in 2020. Not only did GOP candidate excel at multiple levels, but the elections were effectively controversy-free. The Sunshine State has traditionally billed itself as the gold standard in election administration, and 2020 was no exception.
But Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories fueled tiresome hysteria in Florida Republican circles, leading GOP officials to impose new restrictions to address a problem that didn’t exist. Among the “reforms” was the creation of an Office of Election Crimes and Security, which far-right Gov. Ron DeSantis intended to use to pursue election crimes that largely didn’t (and don’t) exist.
Not surprisingly, the special unit has become controversial, and several of the cases it’s pursued ultimately collapsed.
After the multi-million-dollar office was approved in 2022, the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez summarized the problem nicely: “There are few things more dangerous than a government agency handed cash and resources with a mandate to solve a problem that does not exist. As a rule, they’ll invent it if they have to.”
That quote came to mind anew this week. The Washington Post reported on the Republican governor’s election police unit “investigating alleged fraud in signature gathering for the state’s upcoming abortion referendum.”
In the past week, two people reported that an agent from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrived at their homes and asked them about petitions they had signed months ago to add Amendment 4 to the November ballot. One voter, Isaac Menasche, posted on his Facebook page Wednesday that a detective questioned him about his signature and showed him a folder containing 10 pages of his personal information.
In his social media message, the local voter wrote that the experience with law enforcement left him “shaken.” He added that it was “troubling” to see the DeSantis administration devote so many resources to such an endeavor.
In case this isn’t obvious, it was just last year when the GOP governor and his state legislative allies created a controversial and unpopular six-week abortion ban. Soon after, voters statewide began collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would undo DeSantis’ abortion ban and enshrine reproductive rights in Florida’s state constitution.
The governor has claimed that wealthy philanthropist George Soros is secretly behind the effort, and DeSantis denounced the all-Republican state Supreme Court for allowing voters to consider the issue. Evidently, however, that was not the totality of the governor’s response. The DeSantis administration also appears to have dispatched police officers to some Floridians’ homes to inquire about their signatures on the abortion rights petitions. Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani responded soon after, “This is unhinged and undemocratic behavior being pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis in an effort to continue our state’s near total abortion ban. It’s clear voter intimidation and plain corruption — continue to call it out and fight back.” I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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