DeSantis takes aim at citizen initiatives, citing abortion amendment
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Florida abortion rights advocates fell just short in 2024. Future amendment campaigns may face additional hurdles. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Gov. Ron DeSantis teed up changes to Florida's citizen-led constitutional amendment process in his Monday call for a special legislative session.
Why it matters: DeSantis' comments signal that he expects lawmakers to tighten a process that's been used in recent years to increase the minimum wage to $15, legalize medical marijuana and restore voting rights to people with felony convictions.
State of play: To justify the need for reform, the governor cited his administration's investigation into the more than 997,000 signatures gathered to support Amendment 4, which sought to expand abortion access.
- "To have the amount of fraudulent petitions that were verified as fraudulent … that is a huge, huge problem," the governor said Monday.
The other side: "This is a deliberate attempt to erode trust in a process that has been a lifeline for Floridians to address issues ignored by politicians in power," said Keisha Mulfort, spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which helped get Amendment 4 on the ballot.
- "This is an attack on democracy itself."
The big picture: There's a long history of restricting citizen-led initiatives in both red and blue states, University of Florida political science professor and direct democracy expert Daniel Smith told Axios.
- The underlying reason is typically the same, he said: Politicians "do not like challenges to their monopoly authority of making policy."
- Smith called DeSantis' justification a "red herring," noting that a 2021 sports betting petition drive pushed by a major GOP donor produced far more evidence of fraud than the abortion campaign yet drew less state scrutiny.
Zoom in: Florida leaders have over the last two decades taken numerous steps to make it more difficult to pass laws via the initiative process, Smith said.
- The GOP-led Florida Legislature, backed by business interests, led a successful ballot campaign to raise the threshold to pass amendments from 50% to 60%. That's why last year's abortion initiative failed despite support from a majority of voters.
- More recently, lawmakers under DeSantis have upped the percentage of signatures needed to trigger judicial review and increased state oversight of petition gatherers, among other restrictions.
Between the lines: Even successful amendments face hurdles. Smith recalled former Gov. Jeb Bush telling lawmakers he had "devious plans" to undermine an amendment to cap class sizes.
- More recently, lawmakers tasked with implementing the felons' voting rights initiative undermined it instead.
What we're watching: Smith said he expects the special session will yield more rules for petition-gatherers.
- That could mean requiring they pass background checks or be U.S. citizens, he said, although he said changes like those would likely lead to constitutional challenges.
- Lawmakers could also alter the petition drive process, such as by increasing filing fees for petition groups or tightening the timeline for gathering signatures.