Florida Officials Say Cannabis Legalization Campaign Failed to Qualify for Ballot

Florida officials said that the cannabis legalization campaign seeking to
put an adult-use constitutional amendment before voters this year has
failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, the Associated
Press reports.

Sunday was the deadline for submitting 880,062 valid voter signatures.
According to an announcement by the Florida Department of State, the Smart
& Safe Florida campaign was about 100,000 signatures short of its goal. In
fact, none of the 22 proposed citizen initiatives this year were able to
qualify for the November ballot.

Campaign representatives said in a statement that they believe the
announcement was premature:

“We believe the declaration by the Secretary of State is premature, as the
final and complete county-by-county totals for validated petitions are not
yet reported. We submitted over 1.4 million signatures and believe when
they are all counted, we will have more than enough to make the ballot.” —
Smart & Safe Florida campaign statement, via the AP

The legalization proposal is opposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who also
fought the state’s 2024 legalization bid. Several governor appointees have
been accused of disrupting the ballot initiative process.

Last October, the campaign sued state officials for allegedly dragging
their feet to delay the campaign’s signature-gathering efforts.

In November, a Florida circuit court judge tossed over 200,000 signatures
in support of the cannabis legalization amendment after Florida Division of
Elections Director Maria Matthews — a gubernatorial appointee — claimed
some of the petitions were invalid because signing voters were not provided
the proposed amendment’s full text.

And in January, last-minute directives to Florida election supervisors
further complicated the state’s voter verification process, requiring
thousands of petition signatories to verify their signatures in order to be
counted.

In 2024, a Florida cannabis legalization constitutional amendment failed to
reach the 60% voter support threshold required to pass, garnering just 56%
of the vote.