Latest news with #DivisionofElections
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
With enough signatures, marijuana amendment will be reviewed by Florida Supreme Court
A ballot initiative to permit recreational use of marijuana for adults in Florida obtained enough signatures this week to trigger a legally-mandated financial and judicial review. Smart and Safe Florida, the group sponsoring the constitutional amendment, gathered more than 377,000 signatures verified by local elections supervisors, according to the state Division of Elections website. This surpasses a threshold of 220,000 signatures for the state-required review. Attorney General James Uthmeier must now transmit the language to be reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court, which must find clear, single-subject language in the proposed ballot text. The initiative allows adults at least 21 years old to possess, purchase or use marijuana for nonmedical purposes. It also prohibits marketing toward children and smoking or vaping in public. This language is slightly different from a marijuana initiative last year that gathered about 56% support from Florida voters, falling short of the state's 60% threshold needed for passage. It initially did not specify any prohibitions for marketing toward children or public use of marijuana. 2024 Elections: Recreational marijuana in Florida snuffed out after amendment falls short of 60% In addition to its multiple hurdles to become a proposed amendment on the 2026 midterm ballot, Smart & Safe Florida is arguing that a new state law on ballot petitions is infringing on First Amendment rights. The organization filed an emergency motion to a federal judge May 30, saying the state's new prohibition on non-resident petition circulators has "injured" the organization's "number of people to carry their message to the public." The law, signed promptly by Gov. Ron DeSantis, increased restrictions and potential penalties to groups seeking to propose a ballot initiative. One such restriction is by limiting each volunteer to only collect 25 petitions, which Smart & Safe Florida argued in their motion already has limited the capability of their volunteer network. In their motion, the organization said that the state law's nonresident provision is "very likely the difference between" the amendment getting on the ballot or not. The marijuana amendment's downfall was a shocking result in the November elections, since many surveys found enough support from Floridians for it to pass and it was also among the most expensive ballot measure campaigns in the country. Yet the campaign against it, spearheaded by DeSantis and other state leaders, included months spent arguing its passage would have deep implications for the state's tourism. DeSantis said at the time that Florida residents would smell a weed stench in the air, and he said the proposal's purpose was mainly to benefit large marijuana companies seeking profits. More recently, the money to defeat the marijuana initiative was called into question by House lawmakers who investigated the foundation behind First Lady Casey DeSantis' signature initiative, Hope Florida. Lawmakers accused the fundraising arm of that program of improperly funneling part of a $67 million Medicaid contractor's settlement to the political committee that targeted the ballot amendment, headed by Uthmeier, the governor's then-chief of staff. Round two: After 2024 failure, backers of Florida recreational marijuana amendment try again for 2026 This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Stephany Matat is based in Tallahassee, Fla. She can be reached at SMatat@ On X: @stephanymatat. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Recreational marijuana effort in Florida advances toward 2026 ballot
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Citizen power under fire in Florida ballot measure clash in Legislature
Florida voters have taken it into their own hands in recent years to approve medical marijuana, a minimum wage hike and several other policy changes when lawmakers failed to act. But future citizens' ballot efforts look bound to face costly and complex new barriers under legislation poised for final approval in the Senate and headed to the House. Senate Democrats warned the legislation (HB 1205) will effectively end citizens' initiatives, allowed under the state constitution since 1968. But the sponsor, GOP state Sen. Don Gaetz of Niceville, said that's not his goal. 'This bill is not an attack on the citizens' initiative process. But it is an attack on those who have corrupted it,' Gaetz told the Senate during debate April 30. Still, the legislation would impose a lot of new hurdles. Steep financial requirements and the threat of costly fines would be faced by organizations who hire signature-gatherers to get initiatives on the ballot. Almost 900,000 verified signatures from registered voters are now needed for a proposed constitutional amendment to be eligible for the Florida ballot. The Senate bill also requires petitions to go to the local Supervisor of Elections within 10 days of a signature collection, instead of the current 30 days. Late submission would result in $50-a-day fines that could climb into thousands of dollars under aggravating circumstances. Moreover, signature gatherers would face new standards, with certain felons, non-Florida residents and noncitizens barred from collecting. Paid gatherers also would have to undergo training and be registered with the state. New demands would be placed on county elections supervisors, who would have to notify voters whose signatures are verified on a petition, but not when their signatures are found to be invalid or disqualified because they were collected by an ineligible gatherer. 'We're only doing one side in this bill,' said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, who fought against the measure. Fresh standards also have been added that could trigger a Florida Secretary of State's investigation of organizations gathering signatures. Many of the provisions are viewed by critics as slowing down the signature-gathering process, making it more difficult for campaigns to get a proposal on the ballot. Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, called the measure 'big government overreach,' and said it was clear that Republican majorities in the Senate and House were intent on curbing petition campaigns: 'This is to stop any citizens' initiative from ever appearing on a ballot again.' The House has advanced similar legislation, which is even tougher in some ways, requiring ballot sponsors to post a $1 million bond with the state's Division of Elections to cover potential fines and other costs. But with this year's legislative session winding down, the House and Senate are expected to settle their differences. Ruling Republicans, starting with Gov. Ron DeSantis who proposed a citizens' initiative overall in January, look likely to agree on some form of crackdown. An investigation last fall by DeSantis' Office of Election Crimes and Security claimed rampant fraud in the Amendment 4, abortion rights signature-gathering effort, and to a lesser degree, Amendment 3's marijuana proposal. Clampdown by GOP... Florida GOP lawmakers look to layer new demands on state's ballot measures Senate Democrats downplayed the report, arguing the amount of fraud was relatively minor in these high-profile campaigns. But the Floridians Protecting Freedom (FPF) political action committee, which backed the abortion rights measure, paid a $164,000 settlement with the state over allegations that paid petition circulators submitted fraudulent petitions. Still, Republican majorities in the Legislature have worked for years to thwart constitutional amendments, almost 20 years ago raising their approval requirement to at least 60% of those voting. 'It should be a very big deal to change our founding document,' said Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, another Senate sponsor. But even when approved by voters, some initiatives have been hamstrung when lawmakers enact them, with 2018's felons' voting measure not going as far as supporters wanted. Last year, DeSantis used millions of taxpayer dollars in fighting the recreational marijuana and abortions rights measures, which fell just short of the 60% threshold. The House has been investigating DeSantis gaining help in this battle from a political committee led by his then-chief-of-staff, James Uthmeier, whom he has since appointed Florida's attorney general. DeSantis' October surprise... DeSantis-backed report accuses abortion amendment backers of signature gathering fraud The committee received $8.5 million tied to a legal settlement for alleged Medicaid overbilling. The money was funneled through the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity founded to support a key initiative of First Lady Casey DeSantis. The Senate bill takes its own swipe at DeSantis, banning the use of public funds from again being used to support or oppose a constitutional amendment. Both the House and Senate also have ignored DeSantis' earlier call to outlaw third-party signature gathering by citizens' organizations, which rely on paid gatherers to collect the vast number of verified petition signatures from voters needed to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network's Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@ Follow him on X: @JKennedyReport. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida GOP set to add new hurdles for citizen ballot measures
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legislators try to thwart the will of Alaska voters on supporting labor — again
Former state labor commissioner Ed Flanagan, State Rep. Genevieve Mina, D-Anchorage, and the Rev. Michael Burke of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Anchorage wheel boxes of signed petitions into a state Division of Elections office on Jan. 9, 2024. The petitions were for a ballot initiative to increase the state's minimum wage, mandate paid sick leave and ensure that workers are not required to hear employers' political or religious messages. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) One of the most cynical things Alaska legislators ever did — and that's saying something — was vote to gut the 2002 minimum wage increase less than one year after passing it. After trying to supplant a voter initiative approved for the 2002 election with weaker measures, Republican majorities finally took the advice of their own attorneys — that they could only moot the initiative with a bill virtually identical to the ballot measure — and passed such a bill, which included an annual cost of living adjustment and a provision requiring that the Alaska minimum wage would always be at least one dollar over the federal minimum. Then-Speaker Pete Kott told the Daily News when the bill passed that it was preferable to letting the initiative pass since legislators wouldn't have to wait two years to change it. Less than a year later, they deleted the COLA and dollar-over-federal provisions. In 2014, an initiative to raise the state minimum wage to what it would have been had the 2002 law remained intact, and restore the COLA and dollar-over-federal provisions, was approved. Then-Speaker Mike Chenault, who had voted for both the 2002 law and the 2003 bill gutting it, tried to pull off the same cynical maneuver. Chenault's bill passed by one vote in the House, but Senate Republicans, to their credit, refused to play along and the initiative passed with a 70% vote. Now Rep. Justin Ruffridge has reached into the old bag of tricks to try and gut the recently passed Ballot Measure 1 — approved with a 58% vote in November — before it even takes effect on July 1. Their HB 161 would exempt employers of less than 50 employees, and all seasonal employers, from the paid sick leave provisions of Ballot Measure 1. Under Alaska law, the Legislature can not repeal an initiative until two years after its adoption. An initiative can be amended prior to two years, but the Alaska Supreme Court found in 1977 in Warren v. Thomas that the Legislature would exceed its power to amend 'by passing an amendment which so vitiates the initiative as to constitute its repeal.' According to the Research and Analysis Section of the Alaska Department of Labor, 96% of Alaska's private sector employers — the only employers subject to Ballot Measure 1 — employ fewer than 50 workers, and 43% of all private-sector workers in the state are employed by these employers. The broad exemption for seasonal employers, regardless of size, would only increase the vitiating effect of HB 161 on the initiative and the clear intent expressed by the voters in passing it overwhelmingly. Ballot Measure 1 was supported by a coalition of over 130 Alaska small businesses, employers who recognized the importance of providing a modest amount of paid sick leave to workers, for their well-being and productivity — and for the economic and physical health of our communities. No parent should have to decide between going to work or caring for a sick child. Nor should they be forced to choose between losing a day's pay or going to work sick and spreading illness to co-workers or customers. We should protect our ability to enact needed legislation through initiatives, where the people themselves act as the Legislature. Seventeen states have paid sick leave laws, and none of the hysterical predictions of negative effects on their businesses or employment have come to pass. Alaska used to be a leader in providing meaningful worker rights and protection. Let's at least be a follower now and afford our workers the same basic benefits enjoyed by millions of Americans in other states. We should protect our ability to enact needed legislation through initiatives, where the people themselves act as the Legislature. Our elected legislators should respect that process, but all too often, as in the case of HB 161, they do not. We need to let them know that we didn't elect them to thwart the will of the people, and that HB 161 is tantamount to a repeal of Ballot Measure 1 and should not pass. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What is SB 7016? Florida bills would make gathering petitions for ballot initiatives tougher
Last year, citizen-led amendments to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights in Florida nearly passed, falling just short of the state's required 60% threshold after Gov. Ron DeSantis spent millions in taxpayer money to defeat them. Bills moving through the Florida Legislature this session would make it much harder and far more expensive for such initiatives to ever reach the ballot in the first place. If Senate Bill 7016 or House Bill 1205 becomes law, any groups sponsoring a ballot initiative, such as the recent successful citizen-led minimum wage and medical marijuana amendments, would have to put up a $1 million bond with the Division of Elections. They also would have to run background checks and face fines of up to $50,000 if they hire someone (paid or unpaid) who isn't a U.S. citizen and Florida resident to collect petitions, which would now have to include a voter's driver license or state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Petitions must be sent to local Supervisors of Elections within 10 days, instead of the current 30, with fines for late submissions increased from $50 to up to $2,500. Supervisors would also be required to individually notify each voter who signed a petition that their name has been verified and allow them to revoke it, and charge the ballot initiative's sponsor whatever it costs to do so. Supporters of the bills say they are needed to claim down on rampant fraud, pointing to a January report from the Office of Election Crimes and Security citing complaints of petition gatherers signing voters' names, stealing personal information to fill out petition forms, and submitting the names of dead people. Critics say it's just a move to make sure citizens can't create policies that the governor and Legislature oppose, effectively stripping Floridians of a constitutional right by adding insurmountable obstacles to the process. The bills have been opposed by the ACLU, State Voices Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida for All, the Cleo Institute, Common Cause Florida, Equal Ground Education and Action Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Florida AFL-CIO, according to Florida Politics. The House bill passed last week and was sent to the Senate. The Senate's version passed out of committee on a 14-5 vote and heads to the Senate floor. The sweeping bill makes the following changes to how petitions for proposed constitutional amendments would work: Limits political committees to only sponsoring one amendment initiative petition per election cycle Requires a sponsor to post a $1 million bond with the Division of Elections after they have collected 25% of the necessary signatures to cover any potential fines. The bond requirement may be waived if the sponsor claims undue burden but if they do, they are prohibited from paying people to circulate petitions Requires that petitions must be one page, front and back, with at least a 10-point font Petition signatures must also include the voter's Florida driver license or ID card number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number Requires the person circulating a petition to verify that the petition was completed and signed by the voter in their presence Prohibits anyone, paid or unpaid, from collecting more than two signed petition forms in addition to their own or those of immediate family members unless they register as a petition circulator Requires background checks and mandatory training for anyone to become a petition circulator Requires that petition circulators must be U.S. citizens and Florida residents who have not been convicted of a felony and have not had their right to vote restored. Sponsors who hire someone who isn't a citizen or has been convicted could be fined $50.000 Reduces the number of days a sponsor has to submit signed petition forms to the appropriate supervisor of elections from 30 down to 10, subject to fines of $50 for every day a petition is late, up to $2,500. The current law is a flat fee of $50 for late petitions Requires supervisors of elections of all 67 of Florida's counties to notify each voter on submitted petitions that their signature has been verified and give the voters the option to revoke their signatures. Supervisors of elections would be able to pass the costs of doing that to the amendment's sponsor, along with other "operational and personnel costs" Increases fine for intentionally non-submitted petitions to $5,000 Fines sponsors $100 for each day late for submitting a signed petition form after the deadline, up to $5,000, and a flat $5,000 per petition form if it was done intentionally Makes it a third-degree felony for a petition circulator to fill in a voter's missing information or to copy or retain voter's personal information for any reason besides the petition Fines a sponsor $5,000 each time a petition circulator signs another person's name or a fictitious name, or fills in missing information on a petition Prohibits sponsors or petition circulators from mailing or providing a petition form with the voter's information prefilled, with a fine of $50 per petition The bills also require the state Office of Elections Crimes and Security to investigate if more than 10% of submitted petitions during any reporting period are deemed invalidated. Groups routinely gather more signatures than are needed, with the expectation that some will be rejected. 'No citizen-led amendment has ever reached a 90% validation rate, like not even 70%, in the history of Florida,' Rep. Dotie Joseph, D-North Miami, said about the House bill. 'What you're asking for is an impossible threshold.' The Senate version includes a provision prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to influence ballot measures. The House specifically removes the director of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research as a voting member of the panel that calculates the financial impact of a proposed initiative. Last year, Amy Baker, the current director, differed from DeSantis' office, the House and the Senate on the financial impact of the abortion amendment. Most often, Florida law is crafted, discussed and approved or rejected by elected lawmakers. However, under the Florida Constitution, citizens may collect enough signatures to put their own proposed amendments on the ballot for all Florida voters to vote on. (Lawmakers also can pass a measure to amend the constitution.) The Sunshine Laws in Florida mandating transparency in government were the result of the first successful citizen-led amendment, with a heavy push from then-Gov. Reubin Askew. In more recent times, Florida voters have passed popular amendments to raise the minimum wage in the state and legalize medical marijuana after legislators failed to respond to voter needs. Legislators have added obstacles to make citizen-led initiatives harder. In 2006, they put a measure on the ballot to require 60% of the vote. And a bill passed in 2021 put a $3,000 cap on donations for ballot measures, but it was knocked down by the courts. Contributors: Gray Rohrer, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida; Dara Kam, News Service of Florida This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida bills seek to restrict citizen amendment process against fraud
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Draconian restrictions on citizen-led amendments pass Florida House
The Financial Impact Estimating Conference discusses on July 1, 2024, the financial analysis of the abortion-rights amendment. Chief economist Amy Baker is at left. (Screenshot from Florida Channel) The Republican controlled Florida House of Representatives has passed a measure that will make it prohibitively harder for a citizen-led constitutional amendment to get on the ballot. The vote was for 76-31. Its passage comes just four months after two constitutional amendments that would have respectively enshrined abortion rights and legalized recreational cannabis for adults narrowly fell short of passage. The bill (HB 1205), sponsored by Lee County Republican Jenna Persons-Mulicka, includes a number of provisions that Democrats and voting-rights advocates say could essentially kill most attempts to place citizen-led constitutional amendments on future ballots. At the heart of the argument by advocates is the need to prevent fraud. The Office of Election Crimes and Security published a report in January asserting that more than 100 representatives of the group attempting to pass the abortion-rights last year committed crimes related to gathering petitions. And last week the Office of Election Crimes and Security informed Smart & Safe Florida, the group working to get a constitutional amendment regarding the adult use of cannabis on the 2026 ballot, that the Division of Elections was fining them $121,850 for allegedly submitting petitions more than 30 days after voters signed them — a violation of existing law. 'We have seen widespread and rampant fraud in this state and in this process,' said Persons-Mulicka. 'We have evidence that we cannot take a blind eye to. We must take further action to put integrity back into the initiative process.' Among the most contentious provisions is a requirement that the state Office of Elections Crimes and Security investigate if more than 10% of submitted petitions during any reporting period are deemed invalid. The requirement amounts to a 90% validity rate, which Democrats say is impossible to overcome. Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani offered an amendment to reduce the percentage of submitted petitions deemed invalid to trigger an investigation to a 60% validity rate. It was struck down. Other provisions include: Requiring the petition sponsor to post a $1 million bond payable to the Division of Elections once the sponsor has obtained a letter from the department confirming that 25% of the requisite number of signatures has been obtained. If a person who is collecting or handling initiatives petitions is found to not be a U.S. citizen or has been convicted of a felony without having his right to vote restored, the petition sponsor is liable for a $50,000 fine for each person. The bill revises the deadline by which petitions must be delivered by the sponsor to a supervisor of elections from 30 days to 10 days and increases the fines from a $50 flat fee for each late petition form to $50 for each day late for a total fine of up to $2,500 per late petition form. If the sponsor or petition circulator acted 'willfully,' the bill increases the penalty from $250 for each petition form to $2,500. The bill requires all petition circulators — volunteers as well as paid staffers — to be residents of Florida. It says that before a paid petition circulator is registered, he or she must submit to a criminal background check to be paid for by the applicant or petition sponsor. Removes the coordinator of the Office of Economic and Demographic Research from the Financial Impact Estimating Conference, which prepares financial impact statements to accompany any proposed constitutional amendment. (The sitting coordinator of the office, Florida chief economist Amy Baker, is the only member of the Financial Impact Estimating Conference not directly appointed by a Republican politician). To get a proposed amendment by initiative on the general election ballot, currently a petition must be signed by 891,589 voters and the signatures must come from at least half of Florida's 28 congressional districts. To pass, it must win 60% support from the voters. During debate on the House floor, Broward County Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman argued it would be unfair to make an onerous process even harder to accomplish. 'You are shutting out our fellow Floridians,' she said. 'If we really are about the free state of Florida — which is we always like to say we are — then it's our duty that the power remains in the hands of the people. Every hurdle that you are putting up here today takes it out of their hands. Our citizen-led constitutional amendment provision is already the strictest in the country.' Before the floor debate, voting rights groups held a news conference in the Fourth Floor rotunda of the Capitol, where they blasted the bill as 'undemocratic.' 'They are trying to silence us,' said Amy Keith with Common Cause Florida. 'They are trying to make it impossible for everyday Floridians to put citizen-led amendments on the ballot. They don't want us to be able to directly pass policies that we know our communities need. They think that they have the right to silence us but we are here to say, 'No.'' 'Why are the legislators afraid of the average citizen talking to their neighbor?' said Cecile Scoon, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. 'Who are the legislators listening to? It appears when you look at these bills to limit citizen's constitutional amendment process, they're listening to big companies, they're making it so that only big money can use the citizen process, which is supposed to be for the everyday person.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
