By The Epoch Times | Created at 2025-04-05 11:12:47 | Updated at 2025-04-05 23:38:32
13 hours ago
HB 1205 intends to protect the state Constitution’s amendment process from petition fraud.
Florida lawmakers are looking to protect voting residents’ ability to petition for changes to its Constitution, months after two proposed amendments made it on the November ballot amid claims and discoveries of fraud and lack of transparency.
“It is the intent of the Legislature to update the reasonable regulations in place for petition circulators; increase transparency and accountability for sponsors of initiative petitions; and deter, prevent, and penalize fraudulent activities related to initiative petitions,” a new bill states.
There are two ways to add an amendment to Florida’s state Constitution: through the state Legislature and through a grass-roots petition signed by a certain percentage of voters from across the state.
All petition circulators would have to undergo an application process that requires a background check, proof of Florida residency, and training that covers the petition gathering process and the specific criminal penalties they could be subject to for violating the Florida election code.
They would be required to submit their signatures to their local supervisor of elections within 10 days of acquiring them. They would be prohibited from retaining any voters’ information, and they would no longer be allowed to be paid by the sponsors based on the number of signatures they gather within a certain time frame.
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The bill also establishes a validating process for the petition, requiring the supervisor of elections to notify each individual voter that they signed a petition and to ask if they wish to revoke their signature or file a complaint and declare their signature was misrepresented or forged.
All petition signatures are valid for two years, according to Florida law, and are due to the secretary of State by Feb. 1 of an election year in order to make the ballot.
Voters would have until Jan. 2 of an election year to withdraw their signature, and the supervisors of elections would be ordered to expedite verification of ballots received 60 days before that deadline.
A supervisor of elections must notify the Office of Election Crimes and Security if he or she finds at least 10 percent of their collected petitions to be invalid. That office will then conduct a preliminary investigation.
As for the sponsors of these ballot initiatives, the new bill would force them to assume liability and financial responsibility for their petitioners and limit their backing to only one initiative at a time. Along with having to post a $1 million bond to the supervisors of elections, sponsors would have the choice to either pay for their petitioners’ background checks and applications or have the applicants pay for them themselves.
Sponsors could face fines up to $50,000 for each petition circulator found not to be a citizen of the U.S. or having been convicted of a felony and without having his or her right to vote restored.
Other fines that sponsors could face include $50 for every day their petitioners are late in reporting their signatures, maxing out at $2,500. Those fines would be increased to $100 per day and maxed out at $5,000 if the tardiness involves petitions signed before Feb. 1 of an election year. The maximum penalty in both cases would be automatically enacted if the petitioner or sponsor is found to delay the reporting willfully.
Any petitions submitted outside the signer’s county would warrant a $500 fine, with an increase to $5,000 if the petitioner or sponsor acted willfully.
However, the bill does not appear to require the sponsors of constitutional amendments to be Florida residents or place any restrictions on whether or not funding for these initiatives to change the state’s Constitution can come from outside the state.
Out-of-state backing was a concern among Floridians regarding Amendment 4. The Epoch Times reached out to the sponsor of HB 1205, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka of Ft. Myers, for comment but has not received a response by publication time.
Another concern of both Amendment 4 and Amendment 3, which sought to make recreational marijuana use legal in the state, was the lack of transparency provided in both the amendments’ language and ballot summary.
The bill would solve that by authorizing the Legislature to provide that transparency.
“If the text of a constitutional amendment proposed by initiative does not define the terms of art used throughout the amendment or describe any newly created rights, requirements, prohibitions, or authorizations, the Legislature is presumed to have the authority to define such terms and describe such rights, requirements, prohibitions, or authorizations,” the bill states.
However, these initiatives can last several election cycles, and this bill will require sponsors to obtain a letter from the Division of Elections confirming that they have a sufficient number of verified signatures for their previously submitted amendment.
Any amendment initiative submitted to the secretary of State before Feb. 1, 2022, has until Feb. 1, 2026, to obtain that letter. Otherwise, it will have to start over.
If the bill is signed into law, there will be a 90-day pause on petition verification. The secretary of State will notify all petition circulators within seven days that their registration is about to expire and they will have 30 days to develop and provide the new applications and required training, as well as the new petition forms.
