The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) announced the arrest of paid petition circulator Colton Brady, 34, of Fayetteville, Georgia, for petition fraud on the personal use of marijuana initiative. Brady submitted 71 invalid constitutional initiatives forms throughout Florida.
The charges are the result of an investigation led by FDLE’s Election Crime Unit (ECU) working with the Florida Department of State Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) and the Leon County Supervisor of Elections.
Brady is charged with eight counts of petition fraud crimes including criminal use of a deceased individual’s information, criminal use of personal identification information and false swearing, submitting false voter registration information.
Brady was arrested in Georgia on Sept. 5 on an FDLE warrant. The case will be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, Second Judicial Circuit.
Seventeen people have been charged with petition fraud following FDLE investigations, including fraud on the marijuana, casino and abortion initiatives involving more than 34,000 invalidated petitions.
After the legalization of medical marijuana secured its place on the ballot in 2014 by petition, voters overwhelming voted to legalize medical marijuana. Governor Rick Scott signed into law Senate Bill 1030 – the “Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act” – to allow the use of low-THC, high-CBD cannabis oil produced from the strain of cannabis known as Charlotte’s Web. Qualifying conditions allowed under the bill were epilepsy, cancer, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It passed the House 111–7 and Senate 30–9. Now, the legalization of marijuana for personal use is on the ballot.
In regards to the Right to Abortion Initiative, the Florida Department of State has contacted at least six county elections offices, asking them to pull about 37,000 Amendment 3 petitions to verify signatures for review for potential fraud. Nearly all of Florida’s congressional Democrats have sent a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration over its decision to review thousands of already verified abortion amendment petitions.
