After fierce — and expensive — political battles last year about abortion rights and recreational marijuana, Florida lawmakers Thursday began moving forward with a proposal that would place additional restrictions on the ballot-initiative process.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has made the issue a priority after he led efforts that in November defeated initiatives aimed at enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution and allowing recreational use of marijuana.
The Republican-controlled House Government Operations Subcommittee on Thursday voted 14-4 along almost-straight party lines to approve a bill (HB 1205) that focuses on the critical process of gathering and submitting petition signatures to place measures on the ballot.
Bill sponsor Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, said the process is “broken,” with out-of-state money flooding into Florida to try to pass initiatives and paid petition circulators committing fraud.
“Now, 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 said.
But opponents said the proposed restrictions would prevent citizens from trying to pass ballot initiatives when their wishes are ignored by the Legislature. They pointed to numerous examples of voter-approved initiatives, such as measures that raised the minimum wage, allowed medical marijuana, started the state’s voluntary pre-kindergarten program and sought to prevent political gerrymandering.
Genesis Robinson, executive director for the voting-rights group Equal Ground Education Fund and Action Fund, said the bill would amount to a “death blow to direct democracy here in the state of Florida.”
“Let’s be clear, this bill is not about election integrity,” Robinson told the House panel. “It’s about fear, fear of the people using their constitutional right to act when you fail to deliver on the issues that matter most to them. House Bill 1205 would make the citizen-initiative process nearly impossible.”
Lawmakers during the past two decades have taken a series of steps aimed at making it harder to place initiatives on the ballot and pass them. Persons-Mulicka’s bill would add to those steps.
As examples, it would require that signed petition forms include voters’ driver’s license or Florida identification-card numbers or the last four digits of their Social Security numbers; reduce from 30 days to 10 days the deadline for initiative sponsors to submit petitions to elections supervisors for verification; and increase fines for petitions that are submitted late.
Other examples include requiring sponsors to post $1 million bonds to ensure any fines would be paid; requiring that all petition circulators be Florida residents; and requiring that paid petition circulators have criminal background checks and undergo training.
A crowd jammed the House committee room for Thursday’s meeting, including numerous student political activists who criticized the bill. Meanwhile, groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce supported the bill, while organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida opposed it.
Only one lawmaker crossed party lines, with Rep. Jose Alvarez, D-Kissimmee, joining Republicans in supporting the bill. The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee is slated Monday to take up a Senate bill (SPB 7016) about the ballot-initiative process.
While opponents of the House bill said it would prevent voters from using the initiative process to get their voices heard, Rep. Jeff Holcomb, R-Spring Hill, pushed back against the argument. He said voters have the ability every two years to elect lawmakers to represent them and propose bills.
“That’s your day of democracy, is election day,” Holcomb said.
But Rep. Dotie Joseph, D-North Miami, said the bill is “about who won, and they get to decide what we consider.”
“This bill is about consolidating power in the hands of politicians and special interests,” Joseph said.
To place initiatives on the 2024 ballot, sponsors needed to submit 891,523 petition signatures statewide and also meet signature requirements in congressional districts.
The abortion-rights initiative in November received support from 57.2 percent of voters, while the recreational-marijuana measure received support from 55.9 percent. They fell short of the 60 percent approval needed to pass constitutional amendments.
A political committee that sponsored the abortion amendment raised $111.3 million, while a committee that sponsored the recreational-marijuana amendment raised $152.47 million.
