Florida enacts law changing initiative process requirements; legal challenge filed in federal court

By

Jackie Mitchell

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed HB 1205 on May 2, 2025. Changes included requirements for paid signature gatherers, such as registration, training, and residency requirements, voter signature requirements, limitations on ballot initiative sponsoring committees, and petition form standards.

HB 1205 passed the legislature with unanimous support from Republicans and unanimous opposition from Democrats. The one independent member, Sen. Jason Pizzo (I-37), voted for the bill. The House approved the bill 81-30. The Senate approved the bill 28-9.

State Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-78), who co-sponsored HB 1205, said, “The initiative petition process is broken, and we need to put in safeguards to protect the citizens of the state of Florida from the known fraud that we know is occurring.”

HB 1205 made a series of changes to the citizen initiative process in Florida. Specifically, the law:

  • Requires initiative sponsors to submit a letter every third election cycle to prevent signature expiration;
  • Prohibits sponsors from sponsoring more than one amendment;
  • Require sponsors to affirm they are not convicted felons, are residents of the state, and citizens of the U.S.;
  • Requires petition circulators to register with the secretary of state and complete mandatory training;
  • Requires circulators to sign a statement affirming that they witnessed each signature and they were not paid based on the number of signatures collected;
  • Requires circulator registration for individuals who physically possess more than 25 signed petition forms;
  • Requires petition circulators to submit signed petitions to county supervisor of elections in the county in which the voter resides within 10 days after the voter signs the petition;
  • Requires signatures to include the voter’s Florida driver’s license or state identification card number, or the last four digits of the voter’s social security number;
  • Requires the county supervisor of elections to report to the Office of Election Crimes and Security for investigation if the percentage of invalid signatures during any reporting period exceeds 25%;
  • Establishes specific requirements for initiative petition formatting, including specific font sizes and displaying a notice that it is a misdemeanor to knowingly sign a petition more than once; and
  • Requires a financial impact statement to be obtained from the Financial Impact Estimating Conference (composed of four individuals designated by the governor, the Office of Demographic Research, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House) prior to collecting signatures and requires the statement to be included on the petition form and on the ballot.

Four groups—Florida Decides Healthcare, Smart & Safe Florida, The League of Women Voters of Florida, and the League of United Latin American Citizens—are challenging HB 1205 in federal court, arguing that the bill “imposes vague, burdensome, and punitive restrictions on the constitutional amendment process that threaten to chill core political speech and discourage civic participation.” The lawsuit alleges that House Bill 1205 violates the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Florida Decides Healthcare, the sponsor of a 2026 initiative to expand Medicaid, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on May 5. As of May 19, the committee had submitted 11,174 valid signatures.

Smart & Safe Florida, a committee sponsoring a 2026 marijuana legalization initiative, also joined the lawsuit. As of May 19, Smart & Safe Florida had submitted 218,983 valid signatures, about 25% of the 880,062 total required to qualify for the ballot. Attorneys for the committee argued that the limit on the number of amendments a committee can sponsor constitutes “an outright ban on core political speech bearing zero relation to ballot integrity.”

On May 13, the League of Women Voters of Florida and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit.

In its filing, the League of Women Voters of Florida stated that it has been involved in volunteer signature-gathering efforts for various proposed initiatives in the past and planned to use volunteers to collect signatures for Florida Decides Healthcare’s proposed Medicaid expansion initiative.

As of May 19, 2025, Ballotpedia had tracked 582 legislative proposals concerning ballot measures, initiatives, veto referendums, referrals, local ballot measures, and recall elections in 49 states during 2025. As of May 19, 53 bills had been enacted into law. Six of the 53 bills are proposed constitutional amendments passed by state legislatures in 2025 that require voter approval in 2026 to take effect. Six additional bills were passed but vetoed.