A Pinellas County woman has been arrested over falsified petitions for a proposed amendment to increase casino gaming in 2022.
Kasandra Baylor, 65, of St. Petersburg used to be arrested on Sunday for felony use of private identity information. Prosecutors say that she used the information of a deceased individual and subconscious electorate to finish petitions in want of the proposed constitutional amendment. Of the 976 petitions submitted by way of Baylor as a paid petition collector, 477 have been deemed invalid, in step with prosecutors. Reasons incorporated signatures that did not fit, finished by way of electorate no longer at the rolls or the usage of deceased people’ information.
Baylor labored as a paid petition-circulator for Metropolitan Strategy and Solutions from October 2021 to January 2022, incomes roughly $11,000, in step with the arrest warrant. The petition power used to be funded by way of Las Vegas Sands, the casino corporate, which spent $73 million to get a November 2022 poll amendment asking Florida electorate to permit card rooms to be transformed to Las Vegas-style casinos being proposed. The Seminole Tribe of Florida, which has a monopoly on casino-style playing in Florida, spent no less than $40 million to stay the measure from going ahead of electorate, in step with the state Division of Elections site.
The Sands-backed committee sponsoring the proposed amendment, Florida Voters in Charge, failed to achieve the choice of required legitimate signatures by way of the time limit. It attempted to stay the amendment alive in courtroom to start with however later dropped the trouble.
In 2021, election officers around the state raised the alarm that a lot of petitions in want of increasing casino playing have been fraudulent. Baylor used to be considered one of 21 circulators whose submitted petitions to Florida Voters in Charge and have been investigated by way of the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office, in step with the arrest report.
Kasandra Baylor used to be arrested on fees of felony use of private identity information.
[Courtesy of Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office]
The prosecutor investigating Baylor’s case interviewed two individuals who have been indexed as having signed petitions submitted by way of Baylor. Both showed that they did not signal the petition, however their non-public information used to be used. One of the ladies stated she knew Baylor 35 years in the past when Baylor visited a hair salon owned by way of the woman.
Baylor did not go back two calls from a reporter on Wednesday. An lawyer representing Florida Voters in Charge did not reply to a choice or electronic mail.
When the theory of fraudulent job used to be first raised on the finish of 2021, jim McKee, an lawyer representing Florida Voters in Charge, stated that “the idea that our committee would purposely submit fraudulent petitions is ridiculous.”
Hundreds of petitions around the state have been flagged as in all probability fraudulent, together with Duval, Gulf, Pinellas, Marion, Brevard, and Bradford counties. In Marion County, county elections manager Wesley Wilcox stated one petition incorporated his title and a cast model of his signature.
County elections officers stated their staffs have been buried in paintings as they attempted to make sure suspicious petitions.
The then-Secretary of State, Laurel Lee, referred claims of fraudulent petitions by way of six county elections supervisors to Attorney General Ashley Moody in December 2021, caution her place of job to not stay up for a felony investigation to prevent ‘further fraudulent acts towards electorate.’ At the time, Moody’s place of job did not search any injunction to prevent the petition efforts.
In May final 12 months, a Jacksonville couple used to be arrested for filing fraudulent petitions for an reasonably priced housing initiative and the casino gaming initiative, in step with Action News Jax. The couple used to be hired by way of Umunna Legal Group, in step with arrest warrants.
In December, a Marianna woman used to be arrested by way of Florida Department of Law Enforcement brokers for filing paperwork in want of the casino gaming initiative with 5 folks’s information falsely incorporated. The woman labored for a gaggle referred to as Victory Labs Inc., in step with the Tallahassee Democrat.
Baylor’s case seems to were investigated by way of native prosecutors, no longer a brand new statewide election crimes place of job arrange by way of Governor Ron DeSantis. The Department of State, which oversees that place of job, hadn’t showed as of Wednesday afternoon whether or not or no longer the election crime place of job used to be concerned.
Florida Voters in Charge lately has an lively marketing campaign to acquire some other amendment to increase casino gaming at the 2024 poll. No petitions were submitted for it but, and no cash has been donated to the gang’s committee since 2022.
Times/Herald workforce author Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this file.