An investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, working with the Florida Department of State Office of Election Crimes and Security and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, resulted in the arrest in May of a Miami man for submitting fraudulent petition signatures, including those of 13 deceased individuals.
Court documents indicate Henos Joseph, 34, was hired by the political committee Florida Voters in Charge in 2021 to collect signatures for a petition drive to place on the 2022 ballot voter approval for a North Florida casino. The petition drive ultimately failed to gather the required 814,266 signatures.
According to the affidavit, “Upon closer examination of these petitions, your Affiant noted that each form included the deceased individual’s signature and Joseph’s signature verifying that each petition was ‘signed in my presence’ under penalty of perjury.”
Joseph submitted a total of 3,719 invalid signatures on the ballot-issue petitions to several supervisors of elections throughout Florida, court papers showed. Out of the 1,358 he submitted to Palm Beach County’s Supervisor of Elections, 454 were valid and 904 were invalid and included 10 signatures from dead people. Court papers said one of those individuals would have been 100 years old when they signed the petition.
Joseph was released on $6,500 bail, according to court papers. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution is leading the case.
Another signatory, whose signature was on a casino gaming petition circulated by another Miami resident, Haggi Amirally, 29, would have been 120 years old−nearly as old as the longest-living person, a French woman who died at age 122 years and 164 days. Amirally, who was arrested in March, submitted 1,160 invalid signatures, including seven dead people, officials said.
Agents also are seeking Joseph’s relative, Alex Joseph, also of Miami, for petition circulator fraud. Officials said he submitted more than 4,700 invalid signatures to election offices.
According to the most recent filings, Florida Voters in Charge has spent $75 million on the effort to allow a North Florida casino.
