TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ Florida voters have rejected a proposal that would have banned government mandates for obtaining insurance such as required by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
The proposed state constitutional amendment required 60 percent approval but didn't even have a majority with most of the vote counted Tuesday. It was favored by 48 percent and opposed by 52 percent.
Amendment 1 wouldn't have made a difference even if it passed, as the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the federal law.
Republicans pushed the amendment through the GOP-controlled Legislature saying that approval still would have sent a strong political message against what they derisively call “Obamacare.''
It also would have prevented a state law similar to one GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney signed as governor of Massachusetts.
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