Talahasie -For many years, Floridans have used voting initiatives to pass general measures hindered by state political leaders.
The process is a way that Florida has recovered the minimum wage of $ 15, a medical marijuana, and the rights of voters. That’s why Florida’s governor and members of the Diet have a term limit.
However, a new proposal from the Governor of Ron Desantis may make it almost impossible for residents in the state to correct the constitution.
According to a spokeswoman for the Senate of Florida, the governor’s office sent some proposals to Florida legislative staff earlier this month.
Some of the shared ideas were planning to overhaul how to collect the petition to get an initiative by voting. The group cannot collect signatures from passers -by outside of grocery stores or tax collectors’ offices using third -party organizations.
Instead, the Desantis office suggested that people could complete the petition directly in the election office, or request a petition for each voting for each poll.
“The way they wrote it would be a functional elimination of Citizen’s Initiative from Florida,” said Ben Polara, who conducted a successful medical marijuana revision campaign in 2016.
Other ideas in the governor’s list may require that the Justice Secretary “disclose” to the voting on the legal effects of corrections and create more routes to launch a petition from the poll. Included.
Desantis offices shared with legislative staff are more detailed than those that have come to the public before the special session on January 27. It is unknown whether the legislative leader will support Desantis ideas. The governor’s website also has a link to bills, including these ideas.
The House of Representatives and the Senator say that the change in the petition process is complicated and is suitable for regular sessions starting in March.
Desantis quoted fraud as a reason to reform the Initia Chib Process, but criticized Florida’s voting initiative as a special profit, saying that “Our Constitution should not be sold to the highest bidders.” I mentioned.
Chris Melody Fields Figuzeled, an executive director of the left -handed Initiative Strategy Center, states that Desanthis’s proposal is in accordance with the state patterns to restrict the petition process in light of many victory abortion protection. Ta.
According to Figeledo, the other states are already looking for a Florida process after seeing abortions defeated due to a 60 % threshold. If Florida passes more changes, other states can be duplicated.
“I don’t think he’s proposed to make the process more secure,” Figiredo said. “Ultimately it is a power grab.”
The idea from Desantis’s office prohibits an essentially organized signature collection. Under the proposed change, it would be a three -time felony that someone collected two or more signed petitions for the same initiative as themselves and their families and being punished in a prison for up to five years. Sho.
Florida is one of the 24 states in which citizens can fix laws or constitutions, and Florida guarantees the right to amend the constitution. In recent years, the Diet has made this process more difficult and expensive.
According to Pollara, if the change to the signature collection passes, there is no other idea that the governor’s office has floated.
If the change was made, Polara said, “We are not voting for voting,” outside the voting correction by Congress.
Last year, Desantis was greatly leaning toward the state’s power and fought two voting corrections through the petition process. Correction 3 allowed the use of recreation marijuana, and correction 4 protected the abortion access. Both corrections failed.
Some ideas in the governor’s list seem to be particularly targeted for future attempts to restart abortion protection initiative.
One of the proposals states that the Supreme Court of Florida needs to evaluate the petition for compliance with Article 1 of the Constitution, which deals with the rights of Florida’s lives, freedom and happiness.
Discussions on whether Fixed 4 should be allowed to vote, raised the question of whether the fetus is covered by the constitutional warranty in Florida’s justice.
According to Florida’s ACLU staff lawyer Michel Morton, the proposal seems to be a attempt by the governor trying to set another possible barrier to future abortion revision. Florida’s ACLU conducted a campaign for correction 4.
“I’m sorry that this is the reaction when a lot of people want to abolish these ban,” Morton said. “Create another way to fight the future correction of the area.”
Morton stated that the court in Florida has supported the voting initiative in the past as a protection for citizens.
The proposal from the Desantis office is permitted for civilian to disagree with the statement of the revised proposal, and if the Secretary of State does not have sufficient signature, the Secretary of State may exempt the correction. can.
If it was the last year’s law, it may have affected abortion modification. One month before the election date of last year, the Dasantis administration issued an unprecedented report on claiming that an estimated 16 % of the petition for revised should not be verified for “extensive petition fraud”. Because I did it.
The state report includes the generalization of the generalization of the petition drive without providing data in order to back up data, and verification of about 13,000 from the approved signature of the campaign. It was based on the review of the completed petition.
Florida’s report, which accuses the abortion revision clause of fraud, was made a few months after the state had already certified the appearance of voting and a few months after the deadline.
Another idea from the governor’s office is to create more language to the Bagot in the voting to explain the “important legal effects of the correction”.
ACLU’s Morton stated that adding additions would make voting more complicated. Morton said, if they couldn’t decipher what a reasonable voter could see, they chose not to vote or vote.
She believes that part of the governor’s plan is to “make these improvement groups very scary and do not vote for them.”
