Florida Adult-Use Legalization Campaign 165,000+ Signatures Short of Goal 

The Florida campaign seeking to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state is
still more than 165,000 signatures short of meeting its goal and putting
the proposal on this year’s midterm election ballots, according to state
data outlined by News Service of Florida. The updated totals come after
Smart & Safe Florida sued Secretary of State Cord Boyd over his failure to
update the signature totals weekly as required by state law; however, a
note accompanying the totals warn they “do not reflect (Boyd’s)
determination of the total number of verified valid signatures.”

In all, according to the Division of Elections website, Smart & Safe
Florida had, as of last Thursday, submitted 714,888 signatures – about
40,000 more than shown in the previous most recent update two months ago.
The campaign needs to collect 880,062 valid signatures by February 1 to put
the issue on November ballots.

Earlier this month, Maria Matthews, director of the Division of Elections, issued
a directive to local officials requiring them to send mailers to
individuals who signed the petition, which requires them to validate that
they, in fact, signed the document. The process further complicates the
campaign to get the issue on ballots this year after state officials disqualified
over 200,000 signatures last year, saying they were invalid because voters
had not been provided with the full text of the constitutional amendment.

Additionally, the Florida First District Court of Appeal on Monday rejected
Smart & Safe Florida’s challenge to a Secretary of State decision to
invalidate more than 70,000 of its petition signatures, including 41,894
signatures of “inactive” voters and 28,752 signatures that were collected
by non-Florida residents.

If the proposal does make it to voters, as a constitutional amendment, it
will require at least 60% of voter support to pass. In 2024, a similar
amendment received 56% of the vote and failed.