The case unravels
Maria Guadalupe Bautista, a 24-year-old woman from Florida, is the second person arrested and charged for committing fraud in the lead-up to the November 2022 ballot. The case relates to a gambling expansion campaign run in 2021 by Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS).
16 counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information
According to a statement from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Bautista is facing 16 counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information.
She formed part of a political action committee (PAC) called “Florida Voters in Charge.” Bankrolled by US gaming giant LVS, the PAC tried to convince voters to permit North Florida card rooms to become casinos through a state constitution amendment. It would have allowed LVS to expand into the state.
Ultimately, the PAC failed to achieve its desired results. Not only did it fail to get the required number of signatures for the ballot, but authorities discovered that the committee had faked many of the signatures it did submit.
A morbid tactic
In total, the PAC gathered 976 signatures for its campaign. Election supervisors in counties across Florida determined that 477 of these were invalid because the signatures did not match.
Authorities discovered that the PAC had even used the names of deceased people to make up the numbers. One election supervisor discovered the signature of a woman she knew at church who had been dead for five years.
Bautista supposedly turned in 191 petitions deemed fraudulent. Investigators found that 16 of her submitted forms had fake signatures, two of which were from people who were already dead.
Her PAC colleague, 65-year-old Kasandra Baylor, was responsible for many more. Baylor was arrested in June and is also facing charges of criminal use of personal identification information. Authorities are investigating another 19 petition gatherers in addition to Bautista and Baylor.
A desperate battle
Initially, the LVS-backed committee attempted to fight to keep the amendment alive in court by suing for more time. However, it later dropped the effort.
a gaming turf war”
In the end, the Florida battle had proven a difficult one for LVS, referred to at the time by POLITICO as “a gaming turf war.” The Seminole Tribe of Florida, which holds a monopoly over casino gambling in the state, took immediate issue with LVS’ attempts to move in on the sector. It created the Standing Up for Florida committee to combat the LVS PAC, and soon found itself in a legal standoff.
LVS’ PAC filed a lawsuit against the Seminole claiming that the group had been attempting to sabotage its efforts, using illegal methods such as intimidation to persuade people not to support its amendment. In response, the Seminole filed its own lawsuit just months later, making its own allegations of illegal conduct and fraud.