The number of signatures a citizen initiative needs to make it on the ballot is equal to 8 percent of voter turnout in the last presidential election. “So that drives up the number [of signatures] that’s required" to get on the ballot. Since 1970, the signature requirement for citizen initiatives has risen by an average of 12 percent every four years. Citizen initiatives had to collect 766,200 signatures in order to make it on the 2020 ballot. Preliminary calculations indicate campaigns will have to collect an estimated 880,000 signatures to put their amendments on the 2022 ballot.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow Floridians to use recreational marijuana are firing back against legal objections raised by Attorney General Ashley Moody and the state House and Senate. Lawyers for the political committee Make It Legal Florida filed a 51-page brief Monday urging the Florida Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed amendment. Monday’s brief said the proposed ballot summary’s “silence as to federal law is not misleading, because the amendment could never change federal law. In briefs filed Jan. 6, opponents focused heavily on the issue of voters not being told marijuana remains illegal under federal law. “Just as Florida voters cannot change other states’ laws through an amendment to the Florida Constitution, neither can they change the laws of the United States government.

Sponsors of proposed constitutional amendments are required to submit 766,200 valid petition signatures to get on the November ballot. Petitions are submitted to county election supervisors, who verify the signatures and report the information to the secretary of state. The lawsuit seeks an extension until Feb. 1 to submit signatures to county supervisors, with the deadline for verification similarly extended. Those regulations included requiring petition gatherers to register with the Department of State and receive petition forms from the agency. The state had tallied 219,290 valid petition signatures from Make It Legal Florida as of late Tuesday afternoon, according to the Division of Elections website.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The organizers behind the Make It Legal recreational marijuana amendment are closing in on 100,000 valid signatures and have said they will have enough to qualify for the 2020 election by mid-December. A ribbon was cut Tuesday as MedMen opened its first medical marijuana dispensary in Tallahassee. MedMen is banking on voters to back the recreational marijuana amendment the company is bankrolling. “A super-majority of Floridians are truly wanting this and survey after survey is saying that,” said Make It Legal Florida Chairperson Nick Hansen. Florida is already expected to be a battleground state for the presidency next year and likely for legal marijuana as well.