TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Three paid petition circulators were arrested after authorities accused them of fraudulently filing petitions to elections offices in three Florida counties using personal information without consent, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
LaShayna Denice Pierce, 33, of Tallahassee, allegedly submitted several invalid petitions in Leon County — which were rejected — either without a valid signature, with the same voter information appearing on multiple petitions, or containing no voter information on file for names that were on the petition, according to officials.
Pierce allegedly used personal information of social media users without permission on the petitions, the FDLE said.
Nelson Judah Stone, 26, of Apopka, and Arterria Bernay McCutcheon, 31, of Daytona Beach, allegedly used personal information of dead people on petitions submitted in Palm Beach County, according to officials.
Stone and McCutcheon also allegedly filed fraudulent petitions for constitutional amendment initiatives using the information of dead people in Miami-Dade, Broward and Orange counties, authorities said.
All three cases are separate, the FDLE said, and all three suspects were arrested last week.
Pierce was charged with five felony counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information, five felony counts of false swearing and two misdemeanor counts of signing a petition more than once, officials said.
Stone was charged with five felony counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information of a deceased individual, and McCutcheon was charged with nine felony counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information of a deceased individual, the FDLE said.