A political action committee in Florida fell short of the signatures required for a referendum on casinos to the northern part of the state. The process required 891,589 signatures. The PAC, Florida Voters in Charge, needed 77,000 more to get on the ballot in November. Voters would have had to OK a constitutional amendment to allow more casinos.
In another setback, Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper rejected a request to extend the deadline. In its filing, the PAC stated, “We believe we have submitted the required number of voter signatures to qualify for the ballot, but unlawful delays in processing them will lead to voters not having their voices heard. This lawsuit was filed to ensure fundamental rights are not violated and every voter signature is counted.”
However, Cooper said he needed more time to review the issues. “It appears that what you want me to do is find a whole host of recently enacted statutes unconstitutional and you want me to take over control of the secretary of state’s office and tell her how to run the office. If this case was a plant, the seed just barely began to germinate. It’s too early. I’m not denying it forever. I’m just saying I’m not going to even consider it today,” Cooper said. Las Vegas Sands was the backer of Florida Voters In Charge, spending $45 million on the campaign, according to recent campaign finance reports.
The Florida secretary of state’s office said many of the verified signatures were collected in the wrong congressional districts. The law requires a minimum number of statewide signatures, and minimum numbers of signatures in each of Florida’s 27 congressional districts. By the deadline, Florida Voters In Charge was short in 17 districts.
Another group, Florida Education Champions, recently ended its petition drive, realizing it would not collect enough signatures by the deadline to place on the November ballot a proposed constitutional amendment allowing online sports betting. The group was funded by DraftKings and FanDuel, who together spent $36 million on the effort.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida spent $20 million on its Standing Up For Florida campaign, which sought to convince Florida voters not to sign either petition.
Florida Voters in Charge contended elections officials were holding back petitions signed by voter supporting North Florida casinos proposal, which would allow existing parimutuel cardroom operators to offer Las Vegas-style games at their facilities. The lawsuit stated, “Supervisors of elections around the state have not fulfilled their duty to promptly verify signatures as they were submitted, and instead permitted a backlog of signatures to amass, such that many signatures will not be processed and sent to the secretary of state by February 1, 2022. Yet the secretary of state plans to cut off the verification process at 5 p.m. on February 1, 2022, leaving thousands of signatures dated prior to February 1 sitting on supervisors’ desks and ineffective for this or any other election cycle.”
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Jesse Panuccio, formerly Governor Rick Scott’s general counsel, also stated, “Tens of thousands of signatures have been rejected for purported mismatch with the signature in the voter registration system. But the state offers no notice or opportunity to cure, such that these voters are deprived of their ability to support the proposed initiative.” Panuccio said more than 286,000 petitions were awaiting approval by supervisors as of Tuesday’s deadline.
Panuccio said, “To sum it up, the issue is this: These signatures are sitting on the desk and as of 5 o’clock, the secretary of state says, no more, you cannot count those toward whether you’re going to be qualified for the ballot and that is going to silence the voices of tens of thousands of Florida voters,” he argued.
But Cooper responded, “If I entered a temporary injunction today, I probably would be reversed by an appeals court in less time than it took for you to file this here. I just haven’t had proper briefing to deal with it. I just think it’s too fast, too quick for me to be entering injunctions.“
A day before the petition signatures deadline, attorneys for Florida Voters in Charge filed a notice of dismissal in Leon County circuit court of its lawsuit filed December 1 alleging the Seminole Tribe’s Standing Up For Florida group had attempted to sabotage the petition drive. Among other things, Florida Voters in Charge said the opponents hired away signature gatherers and paid people to stop collecting signatures for the casino initiative.
But committee Chairman Pradeep “Rick” Asnani said the signatures gathered by Florida Voters in Charge were “illegally obtained.” He said petition workers for the Florida Voters in Charge initiative were being paid by the signature, which is illegal. The lawsuit was dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning Florida Voters in Charge could refile the claims in the future.
