The Status of Proposed Florida Constitutional Amendments for 2024
Bottom Line: While many citizen-led ballot measures, 30 in total, are currently being attempted for inclusion in 2024’s general election ballots, two have already found their way onto it. Among the 337 bills passed during Florida’s 2023 state legislative session were two proposed constitutional amendments. Those two are the Partisan School Board Elections Amendment and the Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment.
In order for citizen led proposals to make their way onto ballots, sponsors must first procure 891,523 verified signatures, equal to 8% of the votes cast in the preceding presidential election. Those signatures must be collected no later than January 2nd of 2024. Once 25% of needed signatures (222,881) have been collected proposals are eligible for a judicial review by the Florida Supreme Court. With only about two and a half months before the deadline for potential inclusion on Florida’s 2024 general election ballots here are the proposals which have collected enough signatures to trigger a judicial review:
With so little time left in the process, these are the only two citizen-led proposals which have the potential to meet requirements for ballot inclusion next year. But the prospects for one of these measures is much better positioned than the other.
The proposed abortion amendment currently has 402,082 unverified signatures collected. That’s enough for a judicial review, however it’s still less than half of the total needed by January to meet the signature threshold for potential inclusion. Conversely, the recreational marijuana proposal has likely collected more than enough signatures for final consideration. Most recently the marijuana proposal has over 1 million unverified signatures, which even if some signatures are determined not to be valid upon review by the Florida Division of Elections, leaves the proposal well positioned.
Notably, as these proposals are under judicial review, the State of Florida is arguing against these proposals before the Florida Supreme Court. Oral arguments have been scheduled for next month for the proposed marijuana amendment.