DeSantis accused of siccing his ‘election police’ on abortion rights supporters ‘to chill the democratic process’

A widely derided election crimes dragnet from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appears to be targeting voters who signed a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on state ballots this fall, a measure that the Republican governor and his anti-abortion allies strongly oppose.

DeSantis’s administration has previously deployed law enforcement officers to the homes of formerly incarcerated people who were accused of illegally voting. Most of those charges were eventually dropped.

Now, officers appear to be visiting the homes of citizens who signed a petition that successfully put Amendment 4 on November’s ballots, which would enshrine the right to abortion care in the state’s constitution — and overturn state law signed by DeSantis that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant.

DeSantis’s secretary of state has ordered elections supervisors in at least four counties to review at least 36,000 petition forms that had already been verified months ago.

A state agency that operates under the governor’s office has also published a website and social media accounts to advocate against the amendment, drawing allegations that DeSantis is violating state law by using a government agency and taxpayer dollars to lobby against it.

Democratic officials and abortion rights groups are preparing legal action to stop him.

“These are petitions that were already approved, that were done properly,” Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters on Monday. “This police intimidation tactic is clearly intended to chill the democratic process.”

She said DeSantis’s “police threats” raise federal civil rights concerns, and she is “looking into” the possibility of a federal investigation.

Flori