Florida Man Arrested for Allegedly Forging Petitions for Recreational Marijuana Ballot Initiative
A 33-year-old man from Winter Springs, Florida, has been arrested and charged with submitting hundreds of fraudulent petitions in an effort to put recreational marijuana on the state’s 2026 ballot. Alexander Francis, a registered paid petition circulator, allegedly turned in the fake petitions to election offices across the state, many of which belonged to seniors whose personal information was stolen.
Francis was arrested on Thursday in Flagler County and charged with 38 counts of criminal use of personal identification information. He faces up to 30 years in prison with a 10-year mandatory minimum for the first-degree felony charge, and a combined 585 years for all charges.
The alleged fraud occurred shortly before a new law took effect on July 1, which requires petition circulators to register with the Office of the Secretary of State, complete training, and comply with new anti-fraud safeguards. Election supervisors across the state have long warned of fraudulent petitions, and this case is not the first instance of such fraud.
In 2022, thousands of petitions were flagged for problems and ultimately discarded during a gambling expansion push. Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays said that his office rejected 60% of the 17,000 petitions submitted during the initiative, citing false information and lack of matching voter records.
The investigation into Francis’ alleged fraud is ongoing, and officials have not released details on how he obtained the personal information used in the petitions or how long the scheme took place. It is also unclear whether others may have been involved or whether the scheme influenced the number of verified petitions submitted for the marijuana ballot initiative.
Francis has been booked at the Seminole County Jail with a bond set at $210,000. The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
