Two major ballot initiatives nearly passed in Florida last year.
Republicans vowed to make changes to the ballot initiative process.
And Ron DeSantis was fuming after a federal judge delivered a major blow to his efforts to reform citizen ballot initiatives.
Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies in the Florida legislature suffered a significant setback when a federal judge struck down a key provision of their controversial law targeting citizen-led ballot initiatives.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker partially blocked Florida’s new law that imposed harsh restrictions on how ordinary citizens can get constitutional amendments on the ballot.
While Judge Walker denied several motions to temporarily block portions of the law, he granted one critical motion that challenged the expanded definition of "racketeering" to include violations of state election code and petition fraud.
"But such a standardless and discretionary determination only lends itself to the mischief associated with an unconstitutionally vague statute that allows for arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement," Judge Walker wrote in his order on the motion for preliminary injunction.
DeSantis Tried to Rig the System After Recent Ballot Defeats
The timing of this law couldn’t be more suspicious.
DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature approved House Bill 1205 shortly after two major ballot initiatives nearly passed in Florida.
Both initiatives – one guaranteeing access to abortion and another approving recreational marijuana for adults – earned majority support from voters but narrowly missed the 60% threshold needed to amend the state constitution.
The abortion measure received 57.2% support, while the recreational marijuana initiative garnered 55.9%.
DeSantis campaigned aggressively against both initiatives, but Florida voters showed they wanted these freedoms.
The Law’s Draconian Restrictions
The new law, signed by DeSantis in May, imposes numerous restrictions designed to strangle the citizen initiative process, including:
● Requiring all petitions to be turned in to local elections offices within just 10 days;
● Imposing fines for missing voter information and late petition returns;
● Requiring all petition circulators to be Florida residents;
● Limiting volunteers to collecting only 25 petitions each; and
● Adding vague criminal penalties that could turn grassroots participation into potential felonies.
For years, Floridians have successfully used ballot initiatives to pass measures that politicians refused to address – including setting caps on classroom sizes, approving medical marijuana, restoring voting rights to felons, and mandating a $15 minimum wage.
Plaintiffs Celebrate Partial Victory
The lawsuit was filed by Florida Decides Healthcare, a group seeking to expand Medicaid access in Florida, and Smart & Safe Florida, which is proposing a recreational marijuana initiative.
Mitch Emerson of Florida Decides Healthcare called the ruling a "major victory" despite the judge denying several other motions.
"The court put a halt to one of the most dangerous parts of HB 1205 – a vague criminal penalty that would have made grassroots participation in the democratic process a potential felony," Emerson said. "That’s not just a win for Florida Decides Healthcare – that’s a win for every Floridian who wants to engage in the ballot measure process without fear or intimidation."
Challenges Remain for Citizen Groups
While the judge’s ruling provides some relief, citizen initiative groups still face significant hurdles under the remaining provisions of the law.
On top of the new state regulations, petition groups are racing against a looming February 1 deadline to submit nearly 900,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Smart & Safe Florida had filed an emergency motion arguing that the prohibition on non-resident petition circulators "injured" the group’s ability "to carry their message to the public."
In their motion, the organization said the nonresident provision could be "the difference between" getting on the ballot or not.
This attack on citizen initiatives fits a pattern from DeSantis and his allies to limit how voters can change state law.
The Left will spend millions of dollars in order to trick voters into supporting their big government initiatives.
But Ron DeSantis is working to prevent the Left from writing laws in Florida.
