Governor Ron DeSantis<\/a> has long weighed in on cases like this emphasizing his administration\u2019s hard stance on election integrity.<\/p>\n\u201cOur tolerance for voter fraud in the state of Florida is zero,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n
The governor has repeatedly pushed for stricter verification laws, arguing they are necessary to catch bad actors. He has cited similar cases in the past involving petitions submitted on behalf of dead voters.<\/p>\n
While election officials acknowledge that fraud does occur, they say recent verification requirements have significantly increased the workload and cost of the process.<\/p>\n
Wendy Sartory Link spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, said fraudulent activity often spikes around controversial or high-profile issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have particularly hot issues, that\u2019s where you do see more fraudulent circulators,\u201d Sartory Link said. \u201cFor example, when we had casino gambling, we were hitting up to 70% fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sartory Link added that under current law, supervisors of elections must conduct extensive verification steps \u2014 including mailing confirmation letters and prepaid return envelopes to voters \u2014 a process she describes as both time-consuming and expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of what we do, but it is extraordinarily time-consuming and expensive,\u201d she said. \u201cUnder the new law, we\u2019re also sending letters with return letters and paying postage both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, leaders within the Florida Democratic Party argue that while tougher laws may stop fraudulent behavior, they also make it harder for legitimate grassroots initiatives to qualify for the ballot.<\/p>\n
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried criticized the state\u2019s approach, saying the Legislature has gone too far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of our state should actually be very frustrated with the laws that keep getting passed, making it more and more difficult to get citizens\u2019 initiatives onto the ballot,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Fried acknowledged that in this case, the system did work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it tells me is the system worked,\u201d Fried said. \u201cHe was caught.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monroe is now facing multiple criminal charges connected to the alleged forged signatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A South Florida effort to legalize recreational marijuana has unraveled into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-215512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}