Why Florida requires 60% approval for constitutional amendments

The short answer: In 2006, Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment to raise the threshold to pass constitutional amendments from 50% to 60%.

The long answer: It begins with special-interest groups, lots of money — and pregnant livestock.

• The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature, backed by business interests such as the state Chamber of Commerce and Big Sugar, placed the amendment on the ballot, according to news reports from the time. 
• Those groups went on to pour money into the pro-amendment campaign.

Between the lines: The Legislature and its big business interests often work in lockstep, with industry players even sometimes writing legislation that lawmakers sponsor.

• But the state's voters have repeatedly supported progressive or regulatory causes state officials and business leaders oppose when they appear on the ballot.

Zoom in: On the surface, proponents of the constitutional amendment-threshold measure, known then as Amendment 3, said it would protect the Florida Constitution from superfluous additions — and they had the perfect example.

• Four years before, in 2002, voters approved a ballot measure making it illegal to confine or tether a pregnant pig. It became the poster child for the "up the threshold" crowd. 

It's "outrageous" that such a law became "part of our state's most sacred document," wrote the Florida Chamber's Mark Wilson in a 2006 newspaper op-ed. 

• "Amendments like this disrespect our democratic process."

The other side: Opponents argued the "up-the-threshold" measure would erode direct democracy and hamper the electorate's ability to bypass an unresponsive Legislature.

• "To thwart grassroots movements that threaten their chokehold on the Tallahassee power structure, the promoters of Amendment 3 want the rules changed," wrote author Carl Hiaasen, then a columnist for the Miami Herald.

Stunning stat: The measure didn't even meet its own proposed threshold, passing with 58% of the vote. 

• That's just a fraction of a percent more than the share of voters that supported Tuesday's failed abortion measure, per unofficial results.

Fast forward nearly two decades: The Legislature has continued to erode the constitutional amendment process, the Orlando Sentinel reported last year. 

• From 2018 to 2023, a dozen lawmakers sponsored almost two dozen bills to weaken the ballot initiative process.  
• Four became law. Included in the new regulations were an increase in the cost to verify petition signatures and a narrower timeline to collect them. 

What we're watching: Whether that trend will continue into the lawmaking session that begins in March, and what impact those efforts will have on backers of the abortion and weed amendments staging a comeback.