TALLAHASSEE—The Florida Legislature could put its own definitions into citizen-led ballot amendments with undefined terms, according to a petition fraud bill that passed its final House committee on Wednesday.
The sweeping 45-page bill, filed by Republican Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, was approved by the House State Affairs Committee Wednesday afternoon after three hours of debate. It follows a bitter battle waged by Gov. Ron DeSantis against a pro-abortion ballot amendment, which his administration accused of having “vague” and undefined language.
Designed to crack down on petition fraud, HB 1205 is also a direct response to a state report finding that the sponsors of the abortion amendment, called Amendment 4, engaged in various levels of petition fraud.
“We just put folks on notice that if they don’t include terms of art, then it’s presumed that we can do that through the legislative process,” said Persons-Mulicka. “If there’s an amendment out there, and if it passes, and it includes terms that are not defined, then we could come in and define those terms afterwards.”
Amendment 4, which would have enshrined abortion until viability in the state constitution, failed at the ballot box with 57% of the vote after DeSantis and his state agencies waged a multi-million dollar war against the measure. They accused it of cloudily deceptive language designed to legalize abortion “on demand.”
Though the measure’s sponsors, Floridians Protecting Freedom, gathered over a million signatures to secure its spot on the ballot, a preliminary state report later found bulk identity theft and petition fraud. Proponents note that it was not enough to keep the measure off the ballot, and over half of Floridians still voted for it on Election Day.
What Would the Bill Do?
HB 1205 would grant any Floridian legal recourse to challenge a citizen ballot initiative in the Leon County Circuit Court if they believe it should not have been certified. It also strikes the state’s chief economist, Amy Baker, from voting on the financial impact of future constitutional amendments. If passed, only a member of the governor’s office, the Senate staff, and the House staff would have voting power.
Of note, Baker, who disagreed with the DeSantis administration on how much revenue the state had ahead of his presidential bid, was the only “no” vote on the controversial wording proposed on Amendment 4.
Under the bill, petition sponsors would now have just 10 days, down from 30 days, to submit signed petitions to the county supervisor. Each day a petition is late is a compounding fine of up to $2500 per day.
This led Democrats, like Rep. Dotie Joseph, to accuse House Republicans of only pretending to want to fix the petition process. They argued that decreasing the number of days to submit petitions would increase the room for error.
“If we want to decrease fraud, then decreasing the days from 30 to 10 increases errors,” she said.
Democrat Rep. Lindsay Cross agreed, “This bill, as it’s currently written, really is just a death knell for the citizen-led ballot initiative.”
The measure would also mandate the county supervisor of elections to notify the state's election police of potential fraud once 10% of submitted petitions are deemed invalid, which must then conduct a preliminary investigation, though Democrats noted that no citizen-led ballot amendment has ever had more than a 70% validity rate.
These provisions are not in the Senate companion, which requires volunteers who collect petitions other than their own, their families, and two others to register with the state as petition circulators. It also mandates that a statement on the amendment’s financial impact be present on the petition.
“We need to protect all Floridians and ensure that we have integrity in the initiative process,” said Persons-Mulicka.
After passing down party lines in a 17-7 vote, HB 1205 will now head to the House Floor.
