Florida expands criminal probe into recreational marijuana petitions

Romy Ellenbogen, Tampa Bay Times on Jan 29, 2026

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Attorney General’s Office said it is expanding its investigation into petition fraud and is asking local elections officials to hand over more documents related to a proposed recreational marijuana amendment — days ahead of the final deadline for signatures to be verified.

Statewide prosecutor Brad McVay on Thursday sent a letter asking county elections offices to collect and provide forms from certain petition circulators that he said the state suspects of fraud.

He gave elections supervisors until 5 p.m. Friday to turn over the forms — the end of the last business day before the Sunday deadline for all petitions to be counted.

The letter, obtained by the Times/Herald, builds on a criminal probe Attorney General James Uthmeier announced last week into the group sponsoring the recreational marijuana proposal, Smart & Safe Florida.

McVay, in the letter, mentions about 25,000 petitions collected by suspected circulators, of which about 10,000 were validated.

“We have reason to believe this is the tip of the iceberg and many more fraudulent actors associated with Smart & Safe Florida exist,” McVay said in the letter.

Uthmeier wrote on social media Thursday afternoon that “it is apparent that Smart & Safe Florida’s petition fraud touches nearly all of Florida’s 67 counties, and we’ve expanded our investigation statewide.”

Uthmeier and Gov. Ron DeSantis are fierce opponents of recreational marijuana. In 2024, Uthmeier chaired a political committee dedicated to fighting against a recreational marijuana amendment on the ballot.

The 2024 amendment fell short of receiving the required 60% voter approval to pass.

The state’s expansion of its criminal probe comes about a week after the Florida election crimes office began conducting in-person audits of several local elections supervisors’ offices, including in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Broward counties.

After the Broward audit this month, Secretary of State Cord Byrd sent a letter to Broward officials raising “several matters of great concern that warrant further investigation and likely referral for criminal prosecution.”

A spokesperson from Uthmeier’s office on Thursday said the findings in Broward motivated the office to expand its investigation.

Joe Scott, the supervisor of elections in Broward County, said Byrd’s letter singling out Broward County made his office staff feel attacked. Scott said his office has done its job with “diligence and professionalism.”

Scott said handling this year’s petition drive was “far more challenging” than the petition drives in 2024, despite the large volume of petitions that year.

He said the difficulty was a direct result of changes in Florida law and directives from the state.

He raised questions about why the state’s request for more documents couldn’t wait until next week.

“This week leading up to Feb. 1 is always a grind,” Scott said. “So now add to that these new pushes coming from the state, just constantly looking for ways to find more petitions that need to be invalidated.”

In prior fraud investigations, the state has traditionally gone after individuals, not the sponsoring organization.

In order to get on the ballot this year, Smart & Safe Florida must collect about 880,000 valid petitions by Sunday. A state database shows the campaign has about 760,000 valid petitions collected as of Thursday.

In recent months, the state’s Division of Elections has pushed county elections officials to invalidate thousands of already verified petitions.

The marijuana campaign has challenged many of those directives in court, but judges have largely sided with the state.

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