New Rules. High Costs. Same Result?
New Rules. High Costs. Same Result?
Proposed citizen initiatives in Florida used to be a tall order to make the ballot. But these days, it’s a Trenta-style order with a matching price tag.
Why? Because over the past few years, the Florida Legislature has changed the rules for petition signature requirements, paid petition circulators and verification costs for proposed statewide citizen initiatives.
New Petition Signature Requirements:
• To make the 2024 General Election ballot, citizen initiative petitions must be collected between February 2, 2022, and December 31, 2023.
• Here’s why the new “real deadline” is December 31, 2023: Section 100.371 (11)(a), F.S., states, “[t]he supervisor shall promptly verify the signatures within 60 days after receipt of the petition forms and payment of a fee for the actual cost of signature verification incurred by the supervisor. However, for petition forms submitted less than 60 days before February 1 of an even-numbered year, the supervisor shall promptly verify the signatures within 30 days after receipt of the form and payment of the fee for signature verification.”
• Statewide total needed for judicial and financial impact review (signed by 25% of voters required by s. 3, Art. XI of the State Constitution in one-half of the congressional districts): 222,881
• Statewide total needed to make ballot position (signed by 8% of the voters in at least one-half of Florida’s congressional districts and in the state as whole as of the last presidential election required by s. 3, Art. XI of the State Constitution): 891,523
• Section 15.21 (c), F.S., requires twenty-five (25) percent of petitions verified in one-half of the congressional districts to “trigger” judicial and financial impact review. The previous requirement was ten (10) percent of petitions verified in one-quarter of congressional districts.
• Section 100.371 (11)(a), F.S., states that all verified petitions for a proposed citizen initiative EXPIRE on February 1 of the even-numbered year of the same year that the sponsor would like to place the proposed citizen initiative on the ballot. For reference, previous statutes stated petitions were valid for a two-year period from the date the voter signed the petition form.
New Paid Petition Circulator Rules:
• Section 104.186, F.S., prohibits sponsors of proposed citizen initiatives from compensating paid petition circulators by the number of petition forms gathered. This prohibition means sponsors must compensate paid petition circulators by the hour – and possibly with other creative incentives – which increases the cost of the petition drive substantially.
• Sections 100.371 (3)(a), (4)(a-e) and 5(a-b), F.S., requires paid petition circulators to register with the Division of Elections, requires specially marked petition forms for each paid petition circulator, and includes fines for the sponsor for noncompliance.
• Section 100.371 (7)(a), F.S., requires petitions collected by paid petition circulators to be submitted to the appropriate Supervisor of Elections within 30 days of the voter signing the petition. Previously, there was not a deadline for the sponsor to submit petitions.
New Petition Signature Verification Cost Rule:
• Section 100.371 (11)(b), F.S., allows local Supervisor of Elections to charge sponsors of proposed citizen initiatives “the actual cost of signature verification” and those costs must be posted on their respective websites, as well as on the Division of Elections website. Previously, all local Supervisor of Elections would charge ten (10) cents per petition to process and verify petitions.
With these new rules and increased costs imposed by the Florida Legislature, can a proposed citizen initiative make the ballot using paid petition circulators within eight (8) months of filing their amendment to meet the December 31, 2023, deadline?
By the numbers, it will take lots of money and a bit of luck.
The “Adult Personal Use of Marijuana” (22-05) proposed citizen initiative, sponsored by Smart & Safe Florida, provides some insight. Currently, their initiative campaign is in Month 9, and they have spent approximately $31 million as of March 31, 2023, with almost 790,000 valid petitions reported on the Florida Division of Elections website.
For comparison, previous statewide citizen initiative campaigns under the “old rules” clocked-in at seven (7) to ten (10) months and between $3.5 million and $8.2 million to make the ballot.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, Inc., the political committee sponsoring the “Amendment to Limit Government Intervention with Abortion” (23-07), recently launched their initiative campaign on May 8.
Did you know the paid petition circulator industry standard validity rate is 60%? That means Floridians Protecting Freedom would need to collect 1,485,872 gross petitions by the December 31, 2023, deadline to qualify for the 2024 General Election ballot.