Florida law enforcers are investigating the state’s abortion ballot initiative. Here’s what to know

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — State police in Florida are showing up at the homes of voters who signed a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on the ballot in November as part of a state probe into alleged petition fraud.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended police visiting the homes of Floridians who signed the petition. Critics say the investigation is a brazen attempt to intimidate voters in the country’s third-largest state from protecting access to abortion — and that the probe comes long after a deadline to challenge petition signatures has passed.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor of constitutional and elections law at the Stetson University College of Law, said she doesn’t know of a legal precedent the state could use to challenge the signatures after the deadline.

“The Florida Supreme Court already allowed the abortion question to go on the ballot in April of 2024,” Torres-Spelliscy told The Associated Press. “Thus this effort to question signatures at this point seems far too late.”

Here’s what to know about Florida’s abortion ballot initiative and the state probe into the petitions behind it.

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