It’s the first legal skirmish over Florida’s new ballot initiative restrictions

Florida’s strict new law on ballot initiatives faces its first test in court on Thursday when Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker hears arguments about whether to block provisions in HB 1205.

Several groups — including the organization that wants voters to expand Medicaid in the state — have challenged the law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature that was a top priority for Gov. Ron DeSantis. Critics of the new law contend it will make it nearly impossible for outside groups to place initiatives on the ballot.

In filings with federal court in Tallahassee, attorneys for Florida Decides Healthcare asked the court to block a requirement that sponsors deliver completed petitions to the voter’s supervisor of elections office within 10 days after the voter signs the petition. 

Florida Decides and Smart & Safe Florida, the group behind a push to legalize marijuana, also want the court to enjoin the fines for delivering completed petitions late or to the wrong supervisor’s office; signing another person’s name or a fictitious name to any petition, or filling in missing information on a signed petition.

Lastly, the groups are asking the court to enjoin the state from enforcing criminal penalties for violating sections of the law, arguing it is vague and overly broad.

Voters in Florida over the last two decades have passed a number of initiatives that were opposed by GOP legislators, including measures that raised the state’s minimum wage and allowed for the use of medical marijuana. Last November, two initiatives — including one on recreational marijuana and another on abortion — fell just below the 60% margin needed to win.

Lawmakers responded with a bill that completely overhauls the process used to collect signatures.

The first legal skirmish centers on whether to block the law while the underlying court battle moves on.

William H. Stafford III, representing Attorney General James Uthmeier, has countered in his motion to dismiss that plaintiffs lack standing to bring the case because Florida Decides and Smart and Safe wouldn’t be subject to the fines they are seeking to waive.

“[A]s far as the Secretary and Attorney General can tell, not one of Plaintiffs declarants stated that they have ever signed another person’s name or a fictitious name on a petition, or filled in missing information ‘on a signed petition’ , or ever intend to.”

Stafford argues that the fines are optional and “may” be waived — another reason the groups lack standing, meaning they have a stake in the outcome.

Stafford additionally defended HB 1205.

“Florida’s initiative petition process has a problem. Circulators sometimes forge voters’ signatures on petitions. Sometimes they sign for the deceased. Sometimes they misappropriate voter information. Some commit identity theft,” he wrote.

“Petition sponsors fail to timely submit completed petitions to supervisors of elections, resulting in thousands of dollars in penalties. And the problems are magnified when petition sponsors use out-of-state petition circulators, contractors, and subcontractors, who lack ties to Florida and don’t respect its law enforcements’ subpoena power.”

Set up to fail

In her response to the state, Matletha Bennette, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center representing Florida Decides, agreed with Stafford one one point: “As defendants say, Florida’s petition process has a problem — namely the State sometimes passes laws illegally restricting it.”

Bennette argued that the state’s position that the group lacks standing is incorrect. “Plaintiffs need not show that they have violated or intend to violate the law, or that it is ‘guaranteed’ that the State will impose penalties,” she wrote.

Additionally, citing the arguments of Smart & Safe in its filing, Bennette argues: “Even if it were logistically possible to consistently comply with the ten-day return rule, it is impossible to do so (a) without incurring significantly greater costs and diverting organizational resources and (b) forgoing quality control measures to guard against HB 1205’s other penalties,” she wrote.

“The First Amendment bars the Hobson’s choice HB 1205 demands: curtail core protected speech in an attempt to comply with the law, and likely fail to collect enough signatures for a successful campaign, or risk criminal liability and severe financial penalties that would bankrupt the organization. Defendants’ suggestion that the State may, in its beneficence, waive penalties it has otherwise assessed does not ‘ameliorate’ Plaintiffs’ harm.”

Florida Decides has been working for more than a year to get its proposed constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid on the statewide ballot in November 2026. 

It filed the underlying lawsuit three days after DeSantis signed the law.

Smart & Safe, the group behind the proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational use of cannabis in 2024, is actively working to place another measure on the ballot in 2026 

The new law stems from a January report published by the state’s Office of Election Crimes and Security asserting that more than 100 representatives of the group attempting to pass the abortion-rights amendment last year committed crimes related to gathering petitions.

The bill:

• Prohibits felons, noncitizens, and non-Florida residents from acting as petition circulators.
• Requires additional personal identifying information for voters signing petition forms and for petition circulators.
• Requires the sponsor to deliver petitions to supervisors of elections in the counties in which the voter resides within 10 days after the voter signs the form.
• And says that anyone who doesn’t register with the state as a signature-gatherer and possesses more than 25 signed petitions beyond their own and immediate family members’ faces a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.