Officials in Florida and Kansas are accusing two petition circulators of forging voter signatures during campaigns to vote on an abortion rights measure in Florida and allow the No Labels party to put candidates on the Kansas ballot.
Jamie Johnson, 47, and George Andrews III, 30, both of Dade City, Fla., in the Tampa area, were in jail Wednesday on $150,000 bail each. Johnson was being held in Sarpy County, Nebraska, south of Omaha, and Andrews was being held in the Tampa area.
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Each faces 20 felony charges in Florida, while in Kansas, Andrews faces 30 felony charges and Johnson faces 19.
While Andrews has been in custody in Florida since February, authorities in both states were unable to find Johnson until she was arrested a week ago in Nebraska. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced the arrest Tuesday and said he seeks to bring Johnson to Kansas for prosecution. He is scheduled to have an extradition hearing on July 1 in Nebraska.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach participates in a ceremony honoring fallen law enforcement officers at the Capitol on May 3, 2024, in Topeka, Kansas. Kobach’s office accuses two Florida residents of forging signatures on petitions to allow the No Labels party to run its candidates. on the ballot, and the two are also accused of doing the same thing in Florida during an effort to get an abortion rights measure on the ballot there. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Kobach’s office said Andrews and Johnson together forged at least 46 signatures on petitions to have the centrist group No Labels recognized as a political party in Kansas, allowing it to put candidates on the November ballot.
Florida officials said Andrews and Johnson filed a total of 133 invalid petitions in multiple counties during the effort to get the abortion rights measure on the November ballot.
No successful petition drive appears to have depended on the signatures the two submitted. In Kansas, No Labels needed more than 20,000, while in Florida the figure was at least 891,500.
Still, Kobach said that in the case of voter fraud, “it doesn’t matter how far you go.”
“We will drag him back to Kansas and process him,” Kobach said in a statement.
No Labels chief strategist Ryan Clancy said Wednesday that the Kansas case involves a former subcontractor of a vendor and that vendors should provide training to those circulating the petition and have a third party verify signatures.
“No Labels will cooperate fully with any investigation,” Clancy said in an emailed statement.
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A public defender representing Andrews in Florida did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday. Tom Strigenz, Johnson’s public defender in Nebraska, said she does not have a lawyer in Kansas and that she will fight extradition to both Florida and Kansas.
Stringenz could not say whether Johnson was in Nebraska to circulate petitions for proposed ballot initiatives there. She has no ties to the state, she said.
