The political group Florida Voters in Charge, backed by Las Vegas Sands, recently dropped its request for a temporary restraining order against groups backed by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which the plaintiffs said were impeding the signature gathering process. The move followed Leon County Judge Angela Dempsey’s denial of the tribe’s request to dismiss the political group’s lawsuit. That group has collected about 246,000 verified signatures out of the 891,589 it needs by February 1 to have its expanded gambling initiative placed on the 2022 ballot; specifically, it calls for a constitutional amendment to allow card rooms to become casinos as long as they’re located 130 miles from the tribe’s Hard Rock casinos.
If approved, the measure would challenge the tribe’s monopoly on casino games, as allowed under the gambling compact signed in May by Governor Ron DeSantis—and struck down by Judge Dabney Friedrich in November.
In its lawsuit, Florida Voters in Charge said Cornerstone Solutions of West Palm Beach, hired by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, “intentionally and aggressively attempted to thwart the constitutional signature gathering process,” adding “out-of-state companies are wasting Florida’s time and tax dollars with frivolous emergencies of their own making.”
Las Vegas Sands attorney James McKee said, “There is an emergency here. Every day that goes by, people are being poached, people are being bought off to leave the state.”
He said Cornerstone was running “an orchestrated scheme of fear, intimidation and an attempt to pay off contracted petition circulators all for the purpose of not hiring workers.”
He added Cornerstone paid petition gatherers to ”physically to get on a plane, leave the state” and show proof they had left. Then they could come back “on the magical date of February 1, 2022, the date that signatures are due to be filed with the Department of State.”
McKee also said Cornerstone was circulating a “sham” petition, paying petition gatherers for each signature, which is a misdemeanor under Florida law, as well as paying petition gatherers to not collect signatures.
Other accusations said tribal workers ripped clipboards from the hands of petition circulators, ran away with stacks of their petitions and screamed at voters to discourage them from interacting with petition circulators. According to a Politico report, Florida Voters in Charge lost more than half of their signature gatherers in two days because of the tribe’s interference activities.
Ultimately, said Florida Voters in Charge spokeswoman Sarah Bascom, “We will not allow any distractions, legal maneuvers of the tribe’s egregious blocking tactics to distract us from our mission. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw our request for an emergency injunction so our team members can remain focused on gathering signatures and not be held up in the courtroom.” However, she added, “We will continue to pursue our legal options to expose and seek damages from those that have intentionally and aggressively attempted to thwart the constitutional signature gathering process.”
