The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) praised the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida for ruling this week that House Bill 1205's Election Integrity Reforms to Florida’s Citizen Initiative Constitutional Amendment Process were constitutional.
HB 1205, passed during the 2025 Legislative Session and later signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, intended to safeguard Florida's right to its citizen initiative process to prevent election fraud. Its constituninally was later challenged by several special interest groups.
The Northern District rejected those claims, including attempts to weaken the state's petition circulator eligibility requirements and registration process. It also rebuffed the plaintiffs' efforts to force state taxpayers to take on the costs of potential special interest ballot sponsors' signed petitions and avoid being responsible for fines for failing to submit petitions to the intended Supervisor of Elections.
Among its provisions, the Court ruled all paid and volunteer petition circulators must be registered with the State of Florida and be U.S. and Florida citizens. It also disallows felons in the state from being petition circulators unless their voting rights have been restored.
Moreover, petition circulators are banned from being compensated for the number of petitions collected. They also can't have more than 25 signed petition forms if they are not registered with the State.
Notably, violators of the law are subject to fines and penalties for fraudulent activity.
"The ability to amend our Constitution should not be compromised by fraudsters. We are glad the Court recognized that Florida has a constitutional right to stop fraud, ensure that petition signatures are valid and authentic, and provide increased transparency to voters," GOP Chairman Evan Power said in a statement. "By rejecting Plaintiffs’ baseless claims, the District Court has prevented these special interest groups from hijacking our Constitution for their own self-interests to the detriment of Floridians.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, with support from the RPOF, led on the litigation.
