Group Trying to Expand Medicaid Sues Florida Over 'Cowardly' New Petition Law

TALLAHASSEE—Gov. Ron DeSantis's new law cracking down on petition fraud and overhauling the ballot amendment process is being challenged in federal court—just two days after it passed the Legislature.

Florida Decides Healthcare, a group hoping to expand Medicaid with a constitutional amendment, claimed in their Sunday lawsuit that the new law is unconstitutional, misleading, and an attempt to repress voter participation at the polls.

Their legal action came two days after state lawmakers approved the sweeping measure on Friday evening, the final day of the regular Session.

"Let's not mince words: this bill is not about improving the ballot initiative process," said Mitch Emerson, FDH's Executive Director, on a Monday morning virtual press conference. "It is a calculated and cowardly attempt by politicians in Tallahassee to rewrite the rules—not to serve the people, but to protect their own power.

"This is not reform. This is repression," Emerson added.

FDH has collected 100,000 of the nearly 900,000 signatures needed to secure their proposed amendment a spot on the 2026 ballot. They hope to expand Medicaid coverage to all adults below the poverty line.

And while those signatures will not be subject to the comprehensive new rules approved on Friday, parts of the process will drastically change in the coming months.

After July 1, for example, volunteers who collect more than just their own petition, those of their immediate family members, and 25 others, must register with the state as a petition circulator.

If they don't, they could be charged with a third-degree felony.

Other big changes include shortening the time sponsors have to turn in petitions from 30 days to under 10 days, banning non-U.S. or non-Florida residents from collecting petitions, and requiring the state's elections police to automatically investigate for fraud if a county supervisor deems at least 25% of their petitions to be invalid.

"These are not tweaks, these are traps," Emerson added.

The law, called HB 1205, was a massive priority of DeSantis's.

The governor insisted that the ballot initiative process needed a serious makeover after the sponsors of two proposed amendments expanding marijuana and abortion access were branded with hefty fines for alleged fraud or election violations.

Those measures, Amendments 3 and 4, narrowly failed on Election Day, 2024.

DeSantis, the First Lady, and a slew of state agencies shelled out millions of taxpayer dollars to defeat both measures, which they claimed to be dangerous and misleading.

This prompted Republican lawmakers to add a provision to their bill banning elected officials from using public funds to influence an election. Bill sponsor Don Gaetz acknowledged that the DeSantis administration's tactics during the 2024 cycle would be illegal under his bill.

The lawsuit was filed in Florida’s federal Northern District Court.