The Seminole Native American group in Florida has initiated a legal challenge against the Las Vegas Sands-supported political organization advocating for commercial gambling establishments within the state.
The Tribe asserts that the Florida Voters Responsible group engaged in fraudulent practices during the signature collection procedure to enable commercial casinos in the state and “deliberately disregarded” electoral regulations.
According to the state’s fundamental law, any entity seeking to broaden gambling beyond the Seminole Tribe’s existing operations requires a constitutional amendment, which necessitates approval through a statewide vote. A proposal needs 891,589 signatures to qualify for the 2022 election ballot.
The two factions have been embroiled in a legal dispute as Florida Voters Responsible alleges that Seminole Tribe representatives “interfered” with their petition efforts, including attempts to recruit employees who favored the expansion group.
While the legal proceedings continue, the Tribe’s own political organization, “Stand Up For Florida,” refutes most of the accusations leveled by Florida Voters Responsible. It contends that its actions were warranted considering the purported activities of the group supporting expansion.
This week, the political action group backed by this group denied the accusation, claiming that it was actually the committee backed by Las Vegas Sands that participated in the illicit activity.
The “Support Florida” group stated, “Professional petition gatherers employed by FVC-PAC blatantly disregarded Florida election law, not only submitting illegally obtained petitions to election officials, but now attempting to use the courts to restrict free expression and competitive labor recruitment, citing illegal and unenforceable employment connections.”
The statement refuting the claim said that the Florida Voters Responsible Committee had arrangements with various contractors who were compensated based on the number of signatures they gathered.
The “Support Florida” group provided a copy of an agreement between the Florida Voters Responsible Committee and one of its contractors, GPD, which stated that “total compensation will be determined based on the number of valid petitions submitted.” According to the agreement, the contractor would receive $450,000 for every 25,000 signatures collected.
Another contractor, Grassfire, compensated its workers based on the number of signatures collected by their employees, as shown in a pay structure chart posted on its website.
Florida Statute 104.186 states that “any person who pays a petition gatherer based on the number of petitions collected” will commit a first-degree misdemeanor.
Every employment agreement is null and void, and all signatures gathered under the plan are invalid as the plan is deemed an illegal compensation scheme in violation of Florida election law, the legal action states.
The tribe’s political action committee further alleges that Florida voters responsible also participated in “destruction of petitions, unlawful completion of missing information on petitions, and falsification of signatures, including those of election supervisors.”
The “Stand Up for Florida” group released photographs that it claims are containers used by the Grassfire company to organize signatures. One of them was labeled “waste.”
“These signatures were destroyed at the Grassfire office, where there are believed to be recording devices,” the countersuit alleges.
Due to these accusations, the “Stand Up for Florida” group has requested a court order to declare the signatures of Florida voters responsible invalid.
The Florida Constitution’s provision on gambling expansion is also a key factor in another legal dispute over sports betting in Florida. After a new agreement was approved last year, the Seminole Tribe was permitted to offer sports betting in the state, including statewide online betting.
However, after a racetrack operator filed a legal action, mobile betting on non-tribal lands was determined to violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the tribe’s Hard Rock sports betting website was taken down.
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