Accusations Fly<\/strong><\/h2>\nIn a lawsuit filed in Leon County in December, FVC accused several businesses and political campaigns allegedly funded by the Seminoles of submitting a large number of invalid petitions to FVC.<\/p>\n
FVC “discovered that the petition circulators at issue were previously employed by and are believed to continue to be employed by or are acting under the direction of the defendants,” reads the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
It also accused the Seminoles of paying FVC signature gatherers to quit working on the campaign and even to leave the state.<\/p>\n
The complaint was withdrawn late January when it was clear the campaign had failed.<\/p>\n
Seminole Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner called the claims “ridiculous\u201d and said they had \u201cno basis in truth.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Seminoles have accused FVC contractors of paying petitioners per signature, rather than by the hour, which is illegal in Florida.<\/p>\n
FVC denies this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) has launched a full investigation into the inclusion of thousands of fake signatures on a pro-casino ballot campaign bankrolled by gaming giant LVS Corp. Election supervisors counting the signatures last month reported an unprecedented amount of invalid submissions, including names of people who had died. Numerous county supervisors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":201002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Florida Voters in Charge: Authorities Probing Casino Ballot Petition Fraud<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n