Photo courtesy of ar.inspiredpencil.com

MIAMI – Constitutional amendments spearheaded by Florida citizens will have to overcome some difficult obstacles to land on the ballot under a proposed new bill.

Florida lawmakers are debating House Bill 1205, which is backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis who is seeking legislation to make amendments harder to pass.

State Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-Lee County) is sponsoring the bill which is one vote away from becoming a law, to the dismay of abortion rights advocates and Democrats.

A companion bill in the Senate also advanced in the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, which added a handful of requirements before getting ballot approval.

Persons-Mulicka said she discovered a report from the Office of Election and Security that over 100 members of groups advocating to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion ban, during the November 2024 election, allegedly committed illegal acts to get signatures of petitions.

The amendment failed because it didn’t reach the 60 percent voter threshold needed to pass.

She said added petition and other amendment processes requirements would fix the problem.
“We need to protect all Floridians and ensure that we have integrity in the initiative process,” she said.

But Democrats and other critics of the bill said it would severely impact citizens’ rights to propose changes to the Florida Constitution.
“What this bill will do, as currently written, is make citizen-led initiative processes impossible in the state of Florida, unless you have billions to spend,” said Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani. “You are creating new administrative burdens under the guise of integrity that are really designed to restrict access and suppress the First Amendment rights of Floridians.”

According to the proposed bill, the petition sponsor is required 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 percent of the requisite number of signatures has been obtained.

Other added requirements include:

* The bill revises the deadline by which petitions must be delivered by the petition 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.

* The bill creates a signature revocation process that allows a voter to revoke his or her signature from a petition form. The supervisor of elections must post on their website the total number of signatures revoked every month, and later every week. If the percentage rises to more than 10% of the total petitions received during that period, the Office of Election Crimes and Security is required to conduct a preliminary investigation and may report findings to the statewide prosecutor or applicable state attorney for prosecution.

* If a person who is collecting or handling initiatives petitions is found to not be a U.S. citizen or is convicted of a felony without having his right to vote restored, the petition sponsor is liable for a $50,000 fine for each person.