Hernando County Sheriff's deputies investigated allegations someone forged a County Commission candidate's name on a pro-abortion petition. But it's not the candidate who asked for law enforcement to get involved.
Marvin Baynham, a Republican running for a District 3 position on the County Commission, has denied he signed a petition to place Amendment 4 on the ballot. The measure, if passed, will enshrine abortion rights protections in the Florida Constitution.
But Baynham said he never signed a petition.
"Establishment put out lies that I support later term abortion. Ask them to produce the petition I signed. They can't," he posted on Facebook on July 29. "I'm a Christian I love my two beautiful children and I'm unequivocally PRO LIFE. When the hate don't work, they start telling lies."
But a copy of an alleged petition surfaced shortly after that post. It was first published by The Floridian and independently obtained by Florida Politics.
The signature on the petition bears strong resemblance to the signatures on Baynham's campaign documents publicly available at the Hernando County Supervisor of Elections' Office. The documents also list the same Weeki Wachee home address. There are similarities in the handwriting elsewhere on the documents beyond the signature.
But Baynham's objections to the veracity of any petition prompted the Hernando County Republican Party to report the matter to law enforcement.
"As Chairman of the Hernando County Republican Party I can tell you we take accusations of fraud VERY seriously," said Brian Hawkins, local party Chair, in a statement on social media.
"In a local Republican primary race for county commission, a candidate has alleged that someone has forged his signature on an official Amendment 4 petition (regarding abortion). If true, this is very concerning. To that end, first thing tomorrow morning I will immediately be contacting the local Supervisor of Elections, the local Sheriffs office, the State Attorney's office and the Office of Election Crimes in Tallahassee asking them to do a full investigation and get to the bottom of this. I will keep everyone posted."
The Sheriff's Office confirmed it received a report on Tuesday alleging the crime. That prompted detectives to go to Baynham's home, where the candidate livestreamed the interaction on Facebook.
Baynham declined to answer questions without a lawyer present.
Detectives confirmed to Baynham that the party Chair lodged the complaint, and explained they were approaching Baynham as a victim of a crime. But detectives said that if Baynham wasn't interested in filing a complaint, they did not need to speak further.
As the detectives left, Baynham thanked them for their service, then turned to the camera himself and said "Shame, shame shame. I told y'all they are coming after me like no other."
Baynham has run an anti-establishment campaign and accused opponents of AI-generated hit pieces and advertisements
He did not return phone calls, email or social media messages about the issue.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign that gathered petitions to put Amendment 4 on the ballot statewide, did not respond to an email seeking comment on its signature verification process.
But the Hernando County Supervisor of Elections Office confirmed a petition with Baynham's signature on it was submitted by petition gatherers for the amendment campaign. The office declined further comment based on the active investigation.
The petition obtained by Florida Politics is dated July 6, 2023, less than a month after Baynham's June 7 entry into the County Commission race.
He is challenging incumbent District 3 County Commissioner John Allocco in an Aug. 20 Republican Primary. The winner will advance to face Democrat Luciano Vignali and no-party candidate Burton Frederick Melaugh in the General Election in November.
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