Latest news with #Persons-Mulicka
Miami Herald
18-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Florida lawmakers increased education funding, but will districts really feel it?
Angela Martini, a speech pathologist and parent of two children in the Miami-Dade public school system, had never been involved in politics until she heard that accelerated and honors classes were at risk in this year's state budget. Martini, along with parents across the state, mobilized to oppose proposed cuts to funding for Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge AICE programs. The funding was ultimately restored through other mechanisms, and parents believe their lobbying made a difference. 'We won the battle, but we don't want to lose the war,' Martini said. 'It was the first time I got politically involved—and it spoke to my core values about the importance of investing in children's education.' But despite this small win, Martini and other parents as well as state funding experts, policy analysts, and educators are all concerned about the overall funding for education in Florida. Increases this year were marginal and did not match the rate of inflation, they say. Funding for private school vouchers however, continue to proliferate unabated in the state. The state budget, which passed Monday after weeks of disagreements, allocated $15.8 billion in state funds toward education this year, up from $15.6 billion last year. This is a 1.73% increase over last year, less than the rate of inflation at 2.4%. This does not include local funding or other categories. This year's education budget raises the base student allocation—the flexible dollars districts use to pay for salaries and core services—by $42 per student, or 0.78%, to $5,372.60. Total per-student funding (including local funding and other categories) rose 1.59%, to $9,130, up from last year's $8,988 But the overall total including local, state and private school voucher funding for education increased by 3%, due to a huge increase in state money going toward private school vouchers —- which provide $8,000 for students to attend private schools. There is no cap on those scholarships, which are serving an increasing set of students who previously did not receive public money at all. Since vouchers became universally available in 2023, each year they have ballooned by almost $1 billion in the budget. 'You cannot physically do all of what we need to do in public education,' said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, of this year's small increase. 'Florida is one of the wealthiest states in the nation, and again, we don't invest in public education,' Spar added. But state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers , chair of the PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee, disagreed. Persons-Mulicka said the budget was absolutely sufficient, and that it 'was very important to ensure the funding for district schools was higher this year than last year.' 'While we put forth a very fiscally conservative budget, we again prioritize education in our state,' said Persons-Mulicka. The consequences of under-funding include difficulty retaining quality teachers, challenges in providing extra support staff, and difficulties maintaining and upgrading school buildings. Parents, including Martini and David Pollack, a parent of 11th grade twins at Miami Palmetto Senior High, say they have seen firsthand the impact of budgetary issues, like stagnating teachers salaries, on students. Florida currently ranks at the bottom nationally for teacher pay, according to the National Education Association. Pollack said two teachers at his children's school left the state for Missouri where they could afford a better life as teachers. 'It really appears the rhetoric doesn't match the reality,' said Pollack. 'You can't provide quality education if you don't pay for it,' said the father, who has been calling his elected officials to lobby for increased funding only to be disappointed in the results. The education budget does include $101 million for teacher salaries, but the Florida Education Association says this will work out to about $20 per paycheck per teacher. Last year's teacher raises were roughly $250 million in the state budget. Norin Dollard, an analyst at the Florida Policy Institute, put it simply: 'The increases are not enough to support public education.' Systemic underfunding Researchers say Florida's budgetary priorities this year are not new, but rather part of a trend of habitual under-funding of education over decades. Florida ranks 48th out of 50 states in how much of its economic resources it dedicates to public education, according to research by Bruce Baker, a professor of school finance at the University of Miami. His research shows that Florida on average spends just 2.46 percent of its GDP on education when the national average is 3.43 percent. Across the nation, during the 2008 financial crisis states, including Florida, began to lower funding to education. In the years since, Florida never returned to the previous funding levels. According to Baker's research, if effort in Florida had recovered to its 2006 level, education spending would now be 28.3 percent higher in the state. But instead, it has been a long, steady decline, he says. This is despite Florida's economic prosperity increasing over time. It is now 35th in the nation in terms of prosperity, but again, 48th in terms of the effort it puts into funding education. Ron Steiger, the chief financial officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, said that with more funding for education, teacher salaries would increase, and the district would be able to hire more out-of-classroom staff like school nurses and guidance counselors. 'The state should be robustly funding its education system,' said Baker, who has advised state legislatures around the country. 'Instead, we're seeing trivial increases that will keep us on a slow, long downhill slide.' Over the last decade, Florida has steadily shifted the financial burden of education onto local school districts. In Miami-Dade County, only about 38 percent of education funding now comes from the state. Much of the rest comes from local property tax revenue, which is shared with districts through voter-approved referendums, and can vary widely by district and increase inequality between wealthier and lower-income communities. Funding from referendums now also has to be shared with charter schools, further squeezing traditional public school budgets. Steiger said the district is struggling to cover rising costs—including teacher pay, insurance, and infrastructure — without a meaningful increase in state support. 'If our dollars per kid don't go up in line with inflation, then we substantially get poorer,' said Steiger. 'We have no capacity to do what private institutions do, which is control their revenue.' Miami-Dade is among the most expensive counties to live in in the state, but Steiger said it ranks 29th out of 67 counties in terms of per-pupil state funding. 'The funding formula itself is biased against large districts,' he said. School choice funding expands — again While funding to public schools has increased minimally this year, funding to expand school choice initiatives has increased exponentially. Since Florida expanded its universal school voucher program in 2023, state funding has followed students to private and religious schools that are not required to meet the same accountability standards as public schools. The first year of the voucher program, 2023, the state spent $3.2 billion on vouchers — and the number is expected to jump each year. According to the Florida Policy Institute, universal vouchers increased to $4 billion in the current school year, and is projected to increase to $5 billion, including $1.1 billion in tax credit vouchers, in the next school year. Since there is no cap on school choice vouchers, which hand $8,000 in public dollars to private schools, 'this is new money we are going to spend on K-12,' said Steiger. 'The priority is making sure that parent choice grows unabated,' said Steiger. 'But that puts a real stress on the overall K-12 budget.' Persons-Mulicka stood behind the decision to increase funding for private school and homeschool vouchers in Florida, as she said she believes in a philosophy of choice where 'every student should be treated the same.' Baker, the researcher from the University of Miami, noted private schools which accept publicly funded vouchers are also not governed by an elected school board and do not have the same accountability measures regarding testing, teacher-student ratios or teacher training. 'If we wanted to more efficiently improve outcomes, we wouldn't be shifting funds to schools that aren't accountable,' he said. For Spar, the budget represents a broader failure of leadership in Tallahassee. 'Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of legislators do not support the words of how important education is,' said Spar. Spar said that early in the legislative session, he met with leaders in Tallahassee who said they wanted to fund public schools so that they have the ability to compete on the market with private and charter schools. But those commitments, he said, failed to materialize. Based on 2024 data, Florida 8th-grade reading and math scores are lower than the national average, and the state has been on a downward trend since 2022, according to The Nation's Report Card. 'We're operating without accountability. We're seeing the impacts of really bad policy,' Spar said. 'Florida has seen significant reductions in SAT scores. We are doing worse than we were 25 years ago.' 'This is not putting Florida on a path toward being competitive,' Spar said. 'But voters have shown again and again that they support public schools. If lawmakers don't fund them, we're going to vote them out.'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida may require proof of citizenship to vote under new legislation echoing Trump
The House is moving ahead with legislation intended to meet President Trump's executive order requiring prospective voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register. But the proposal, advanced Tuesday by a House panel, drew a cascade of criticism from voter groups whose members warned that the new demands will create obstacles that could block thousands of Floridians from casting ballots. 'The requirement for citizenship verification is nothing more than a new literacy test to suppress voter turnout, just as Jim Crow (laws) did,' said Rep. Daryl Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, citing laws used decades ago to discriminate against Black residents across the South. But House sponsor Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, said her measure (HB 1381) will go a long way toward assuring election integrity. And, she added, it complies with the president's order, now challenged in federal court by several Hispanic organizations as an unconstitutional overreach of his authority. 'With every bill, we heard the same concerns: voter suppression, voter suppression,' Persons-Mulicka said, recalling earlier fights over election-related bills. 'You're making it harder for those who are eligible to vote, to vote. 'But in debate, on each bill, I stood up on the floor and said, 'we're not making it harder to vote, we're making it harder to commit fraud.' ' With the latest bill, though, even Floridians already registered to vote may face challenges when doing something as simple as changing their address with election supervisors. More hoops for citizens ballot measures? Florida GOP lawmakers look to layer new demands on state's ballot measures Voters groups halt registration drives: Grassroots groups end voter registration drives, fearing Florida law pushed by GOP Beginning in October, the bill would require the voter to verify U.S. citizenship with one of seven forms of identification, including a driver's license, passport or birth certificate, to make changes on an existing registration. Such IDs also would be needed for first-time registrants. The bill would require that, beginning next year, Florida driver's licenses display information on whether the holder is a U.S. citizen. The legislation also makes irregularities or fraud involving voter registration, voting, or candidate petitions subject to criminal racketeering charges. The bill cleared the House Government Operations subcommittee on a 12-5 vote, with all Republicans in favor and all Democrats opposed. With Republican supermajorities controlling the House and Senate, the legislation is expected to win approval before lawmakers adjourn next month. 'The threat is real of illegals voting,' said Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill. Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump and his allies made unfounded claims about large numbers of noncitizens voting. In Tuesday's House hearing, Persons-Mulicka was criticized by some who testified for not going far enough and failing to require hand-counting of ballots. Much of the two hours of discussion of the bill sounded a lot like debate that has swirled around Trump's order. Democrats argued the ID requirements could prove a bureaucratic nightmare for voters who lose a birth certificate, don't have a passport, are uprooted from their homes and lose documents because of storms, and for spouses who change their names after marriage. Also, some warned that outdated or unreliable government databases can erroneously list naturalized citizens as noncitizens. Others said securing the proper documents to prove citizenship will discourage some people from voting. Rep. Wallace Aristide, D-Miami, said lines at his county's driver's license and clerk's offices are out the door on any given day: 'This is going to be a struggle. This is going to be a challenge. I just don't see how this is going to work,' he told Persons-Mulicka. 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: Got ID? Proof of citizenship may soon be needed to vote in Florida
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fort Myers Council reverses field
Four days after a deadlocked vote rejected an agreement for Fort Myers police officers to be trained as agents of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, City Council members voted unanimously to approve the agreement. The Special Emergency Meeting on Friday afternoon produced a standing-room-only crowd in chambers and a packed overflow room outside. A parade of residents spoke in opposition to the agreement, offering concerns over the Constitutionality of the ICE approach and the vagueness of what turned out to be a forced agreement. The 3-3 vote on Monday produced threats against the three councilwomen who voted no, threats of removal from office from Gov. Ron DeSantis, threats of prosecution from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and harsh criticism from Naples Congressman Byron Donalds, who just a few days previous had announced his Trump-backed run for governor. It also spawned death threats against the three councilwomen, Darla Bonk, Diana Giraldo and Terolyn Watson. More: Fort Myers City council, in a reversal, approves ICE memorandum with police department More: Facing death threats, Fort Myers council members will re-think vote against ICE partnership While nearly all speakers opposed the agreement there were, unlike Monday, exceptions. State Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka said called the council vote 'technical approval', saying the policy debate had already taken place in Tallahassee and council members who voted against the agreement would be breaking the law. "We are a law-and-order state," she said. "We will not permit sanctuary cities or sanctuary city policies." Persons-Mulicka raised the name of Officer Adam Jobbers-Miller, a Fort Myers officer killed by an undocumented alien in 2018. "The person who shot him should not have been here," she said. "He was here unlawfully." Persons-Mulicka raised the specter of the drug fentanyl, which officials claim flows into the country across the Mexican border. Her words were echoed by David Miller, the father of the slain officer. Had the agreement been in place in 2018, he said, his son might be alive today. "My grandchildren would have a father," he said. "I would still have a son." Another speaker later pointed out that Jobbers-Miller's killer, a mentally ill Wisner Desmaret, had been under an ICE hold as early as 2010, but it wasn't enforced, freeing him. For most of the 3-hour meeting, however, council heard only opposition to the agreement. City business owner Pamela Templeton said she has read the agreement. "What I saw was a hastily written 'sign this' with a bunch of blanks," she said. "To say there don't need to be answers before you sign?" Templeton pointed out the local police already work with ICE under an existing agreement. "It's not unreasonable to know everything on the table before a vote," she said. Councilwoman Giraldo, herself an immigrant, stressed the existence of that agreement. After the vote she said that "the media" had mischaracterized the vote as being against cooperating with ICE. 'I want to set the record straight about the vote we took on Monday," she said in a statement after the meeting. "Press accounts and comments from others in government were inaccurate. They left the impression that I was objecting to the city cooperating with ICE. That's not true." Giraldo did repeat concerns she voiced before the first vote and that were echoed by the public. She cited text in the agreement that says city police can stop and interrogate someone "believed to be an alien" and "arrest without warrant" someone they believe to be in the country unlawfully. "We are told they will arrest only the most violent who commit crimes in our community," she said. "These parts of this document say otherwise." She questioned Deputy Chief Victor Medico about details of the agreement and how they would affect the way local police do their jobs. The answer? "We won't know until we go through the training." Giraldo said that she was uncomfortable entering into such a vague agreement. "This is not about following the law," she said. Councilwoman Watson agreed. "The reason I voted the way I voted was the lack of information," she said. "In the past racial profiling did exist. We have to get this thing cleared up before we enter into an agreement." But in the end the council vote to approve the agreement was 7-0. City Attorney Grant Alley said guidance from Uthmeier made the vote mandatory. The agreement mandates agreement from the state's 67 county sheriff's and any law enforcement agency with a detention facility, which Fort Myers does not have. He said the law calls for other agencies to use "best faith efforts" to assist ICE. The Attorney General, he said, has advised that "best faith efforts" means cities must approve the agreement. Asked flat-out whether the council was in violation of the law Alley, said "It's not very clear." But the way to answer that question, he said, would be to write the AG and seek an opinion, he said. Though it is not formal, the city already has that opinion. Residents remained unconvinced. "Do we want a society where police arrest first and ask questions later?" asked Emanuella Casimir, a Fort Myers immigration attorney. "This policy undermines public safety by sowing fear and distrust. We're looking at racial profiling, wrongful detention and guilty until proven innocent." Her remarks were repeated by passionate residents for almost two hours. As residents panned the agreement and praised the three women who opposed it, Mayor Kevin Andrson admonished them several times to stick to talking about the proposed agreement. A few times Anderson had the speakers' microphone turned off. Residents called the law mandating the agreement "top-down bullying" from Tallahassee. Resident Daniel Becker talked about "jack-booted thugs" and "a bullying Legislature" shutting up "three people who had the audacity to question their authority." Renata Bozzetto, deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said the agreement is not mandatory and is not about public safety. "It's about terrifying an entire community," she said. Will Mann, a legal fellow with the Community Justice Project, said he realized the council was under extraordinary pressure from the governor and the attorney general. "At the end of the day entering into the agreement is a choice," he said. "It's a choice the governor wants you to make out of fear and panic." In the end, the council followed Alley's advice, though Bonk and Giraldo both heaped criticism on his role. Both councilwomen said his silence before the first vote left them without knowledge that might have short-circuited the threats from the state and the death threats currently under investigation. Bonk in fact referred to "significant dereliction of duty on the part of my City Attorney." But when Councilman Fred Burson asked Alley flat-out for his opinion on whether council should approve the agreement Alley said they should. The vote was unanimous. This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Facing threats of investigation and removal - and even death - council reverses vote
Miami Herald
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
How Florida Legislature could change the rules for petition-led ballot questions
Florida's Legislature is eyeing changes to the ballot initiative process after last year's intense fight over two proposed amendments on abortion access and recreational marijuana. Opponents say the bill would consolidate more power in the hands of Tallahassee and monied special interests. Proponents say the changes ensure the integrity of the process and keep out-of-state special interests out. Florida's ballot initiative process, a right guaranteed in the constitution, has long been used by groups to pass measures that have been otherwise stymied by state lawmakers. It's how Florida got a $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana and felon voter restoration. The process is among the hardest of any of the 24 states that allow citizens to directly amend their laws or constitution. Legislative changes have made the process in Florida harder and costlier in recent years. HB 1205 would continue that trend, about a dozen public commenters warned during the bill's first committee meeting Thursday. They pointed to the bill's requirement that sponsors put up a $1 million bond before collecting any petitions, as well as its proposals to increase fines, add new requirements and tighten the window to return petitions. But Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, the bill sponsor, argued that her proposal was the way to keep the ballot initiative process so that 'only those with a stake in our constitution can change it.' The legislation comes on the heels of two high-profile failed constitutional amendments heavily opposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Republicans: Amendment 3, which would have allowed for recreational marijuana use, and Amendment 4, which would have protected abortion access and undone the state's six-week abortion ban. When talking about her motivations for filing the bill, Persons-Mulicka pointed to a state report that alleged widespread fraud in the abortion amendment campaign. Critics of the state's report accused DeSantis' administration of applying uneven scrutiny toward a campaign he disliked. Her bill changes the law to require that all petition collectors — both paid workers and volunteers — be Florida residents, citizens and not have certain felony convictions. Persons-Mulicka's bill would also require that all petitions collected be turned into a supervisor of elections office within 10 days, down from the current 30-day window. Related fines for being late would be increased. It also would allow fraud related to petitions to be prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act. Brad Ashwell, the Florida director of All Voting is Local, said the bill's proposals would have a 'pretty serious chilling effect' on an ordinary campaign's ability to move forward but could be easily overcome by well-off groups. 'It puts the process more firmly in the hands of those who have the resources, who have the wealth,' Ashwell said. Rich Templin, political director for the Florida AFL-CIO, said that over the last two decades, Florida's petition process has become cost-prohibitive for grassroots efforts — which he said was the Legislature's design. 'These bills are only filed after something happens at the ballot box that the majority in the Capitol doesn't like,' he said. Templin said the Legislature began making major changes after a 2004 minimum wage amendment passed. One of those changes required that signatures expire in a shorter time frame. In order to get the nearly 900,000 needed petitions in a tight window, Templin said campaigns need to rely on paid circulators, rather than volunteers. 'If the petition process is broken, it's bills like this that broke it,' Templin said at Tuesday's committee meeting. Changes to the petition process are one of DeSantis' priorities for this session. But his proposal, which would effectively dismantle petition circulation as it exists today, is significantly different from Persons-Mulicka's bill. Persons-Mulicka said that she wanted to balance the integrity of the petition process while still ensuring citizens can petition to amend the constitution. 'That power belongs to the people, and I want to ensure that that power's protected,' she said. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, has filed a sweeping election bill in the Senate that mirrors DeSantis' proposals, but the Senate's election committee is planning to put its own not-yet-revealed bill forward. It's unclear what that bill will include. House Speaker Danny Perez, R-Miami, said Tuesday that he believed the House, Senate and governor were on different pages about how they should approach changes to the petition process. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton said they are in support of taking action, though. The Florida Supervisors of Election association is in support of the House bill but wants some changes, said lobbyist David Ramba, including requiring voters themselves to return petitions to elections offices instead of allowing the amendment sponsor to do so. The proposed House bill would require election supervisors to notify a voter once their petition is verified as valid, and tell the voter they can revoke their petition if it was signed fraudulently. Lauren Brenzel, the campaign director for Amendment 4, said there's no state where the petition process operates the way Ramba suggested. Brenzel said that some of the bill's suggested fines, including a $500 fine for petitions sent to a different elections supervisor, could be incurred by a campaign for simple paperwork mistakes. 'I really do think it is so sad to see legislation like this that claims to be for the people that really is further alienating people from the process,' Brenzel said.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida bill to change petition process decried as aiding special interests
TALLAHASSEE — Florida's Legislature is eyeing changes to the ballot initiative process after last year's intense fight over two proposed amendments on abortion access and recreational marijuana. Opponents say the bill would consolidate more power in the hands of Tallahassee and monied special interests. Proponents say the changes ensure the integrity of the process and keep out-of-state special interests out. Florida's ballot initiative process, a right guaranteed in the constitution, has long been used by groups to pass measures that have been otherwise stymied by state lawmakers. It's how Florida got a $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana and felon voter restoration. The process is among the hardest of any of the 24 states that allow citizens to directly amend their laws or constitution. Legislative changes have made the process in Florida harder and costlier in recent years. HB 1205 would continue that trend, about a dozen public commenters warned during the bill's first committee meeting Thursday. They pointed to the bill's requirement that sponsors put up a $1 million bond before collecting any petitions, as well as its proposals to increase fines, add new requirements and tighten the window to return petitions. But Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, the bill sponsor, argued that her proposal was the way to keep the ballot initiative process so that 'only those with a stake in our constitution can change it.' The legislation comes on the heels of two high-profile failed constitutional amendments heavily opposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Republicans: Amendment 3, which would have allowed for recreational marijuana use, and Amendment 4, which would have protected abortion access and undone the state's six-week abortion ban. When talking about her motivations for filing the bill, Persons-Mulicka pointed to a state report that alleged widespread fraud in the abortion amendment campaign. Critics of the state's report accused Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration of applying uneven scrutiny toward a campaign he disliked. Her bill changes the law to require that all petition collectors — both paid workers and volunteers — be Florida residents, citizens and not have certain felony convictions. Persons-Mulicka's bill would also require that all petitions collected be turned into a supervisor of elections office within 10 days, down from the current 30-day window. Related fines for being late would be increased. It also would allow fraud related to petitions to be prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act. Brad Ashwell, the Florida director of All Voting is Local, said the bill's proposals would have a 'pretty serious chilling effect' on an ordinary campaign's ability to move forward but could be easily overcome by well-off groups. 'It puts the process more firmly in the hands of those who have the resources, who have the wealth,' Ashwell said. Rich Templin, political director for the Florida AFL-CIO, said that over the last two decades, Florida's petition process has become cost-prohibitive for grassroots efforts — which he said was the Legislature's design. 'These bills are only filed after something happens at the ballot box that the majority in the Capitol doesn't like,' he said. Templin said the Legislature began making major changes after a 2004 minimum wage amendment passed. One of those changes required that signatures expire in a shorter time frame. In order to get the nearly 900,000 needed petitions in a tight window, Templin said campaigns need to rely on paid circulators, rather than volunteers. 'If the petition process is broken, it's bills like this that broke it,' Templin said at Tuesday's committee meeting. Changes to the petition process are one of DeSantis' priorities for this session. But his proposal, which would effectively dismantle petition circulation as it exists today, is significantly different from Persons-Mulicka's bill. Persons-Mulicka said that she wanted to balance the integrity of the petition process while still ensuring citizens can petition to amend the constitution. 'That power belongs to the people, and I want to ensure that that power's protected,' she said. Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, has filed a sweeping election bill in the Senate that mirrors DeSantis' proposals, but the Senate's election committee is planning to put its own not-yet-revealed bill forward. It's unclear what that bill will include. House Speaker Danny Perez, R-Miami, said Tuesday that he believed the House, Senate and governor were on different pages about how they should approach changes to the petition process. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton said they are in support of taking action, though. The Florida Supervisors of Election association is in support of the House bill but wants some changes, said lobbyist David Ramba, including requiring voters themselves to return petitions to elections offices instead of allowing the amendment sponsor to do so. The proposed House bill would require election supervisors to notify a voter once their petition is verified as valid, and tell the voter they can revoke their petition if it was signed fraudulently. Lauren Brenzel, the campaign director for Amendment 4, said there's no state where the petition process operates the way Ramba suggested. Brenzel said that some of the bill's suggested fines, including a $500 fine for petitions sent to a different elections supervisor, could be incurred by a campaign for simple paperwork mistakes. 'I really do think it is so sad to see legislation like this that claims to be for the people that really is further alienating people from the process,' Brenzel said.
