FFlorida Decides Healthcare, a political committee sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expanding Medicaid coverage, was quick to turn its eyes to 2028 as the state declared an end to all initiative petition drives for the November ballot.
With litigation ongoing, Smart & Safe Florida, seeking to put recreational marijuana on the ballot, snapped that Secretary of State Cord Byrd’s action on Sunday was “premature.”
Bryd’s Department of State had posted that “All twenty-two active proposed constitutional amendments by initiative petitions failed to meet the requirements of Florida law for placement on the 2026 General Election ballot.”
The action doesn’t impact ongoing legislative efforts that could be put on the November ballot, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis push for tax relief for homesteaded property owners.
Affects of a new law
House Minority Leader Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, told reporters Monday that the failure of every proposal was inevitable as a 2025 law “put excessive civil and criminal liabilities onto petition gathers, making it all but impossible to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot, exactly what we said would happen.”
The law (HB 1205), which has been in the courts almost since its signing by Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 2, 2025, imposed additional hurdles on the ballot-initiative process and heightened penalties for wrongdoing.
Smart & Safe Florida
In a statement, Smart & Safe Florida claimed to have submitted 1.4 million signatures, exceeding the 880,062 needed to get on the ballot.
“We believe the declaration by the Secretary of State is premature, as the final and complete county-by-county totals for validated petitions are not yet reported,” the group posted in its statement.
The Division of Elections website stated Monday that 783,592 signatures had been validated from Smart & Safe Florida.
Attorney General James Uthmeier said Monday that the action by the Department of State won’t end his office’s investigation of election fraud.
“I think this highlights the danger of these petition gathering processes, things going on the ballot where you have fraud in the election system,” Uthmeier said while at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Tampa Office.
He had earlier posted online that Smart & Safe Florida failed to get its amendment on the ballot due to “numerous cases of fraudulent petitions.”
Last month, Uthmeier declared a “major escalation” in the investigation of Smart & Safe Florida and its contractors and subcontractors.
Medicaid expansion
Meanwhile, Mitch Emerson, executive director of Florida Decides Healthcare, was quick to say his group was shifting its focus to the 2028 contest.
“This campaign has always been about giving Florida voters a choice,” Emerson stated in a release. “Floridians overwhelmingly support Medicaid expansion, and starting February 1, we’re getting back to work in communities across the state to make sure their voices are heard.”
Of the 880,062 signatures needed to get on the fall ballot, the Division of Elections website stated that Florida Decides Healthcare had submitted 90,250 of which 75,855 had been validated.
Florida Decides Healthcare noted that the 2025 law’s “unprecedented and punitive barriers” resulted in “months of disruption.”
“The legislation dramatically increased petition costs, added new bureaucratic hurdles, and slowed the verification process, effectively attempting to shut Floridians out of their constitutional right to direct democracy,” the group’s release stated.
The governor pressed for the changes after highly contentious and expensive battles over proposals in 2024 that sought to place abortion rights in the state Constitution and allow recreational marijuana for adults. Both measures fell short of the necessary 60 percent approval required to pass.
News Service Assignment Manager Tom Urban contributed to this report.
