Florida Republican lawmakers are working to impose significant restrictions on the ability to put initiatives on the ballot—a plan that could impair efforts to let voters decide on marijuana legalization next year.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)—who strongly advocated against a 2024 legalization proposal that ultimately failed to achieve a steep 60 percent vote threshold—pitched the idea to lawmakers, calling for changes to the petition gathering process that threaten to further complicate citizen-led reform efforts for a range of issues.
On Thursday, legislators took up that call, with the House Government Operations Subcommittee advancing a bill from Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R) that would, among other things, require petitioners to post a $1 million bond before commencing signature gathering, prohibit the use of out-of-state petitioners and narrow the window in which signatures must be handed over to election officials, among other changes.
“The process has been taken over by out of state fraudsters looking to make a quick buck and by special interests’ intent on buying their way into our Constitution,” Persons-Mulicka argued at the hearing. “The bill seeks to root out the problem and provide assurances that only those with a stake in our Constitution can change it to that end.”
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