‘Keep Our Constitution Clean’ edges closer to signature threshold

Florida constitution.

A proposed ballot amendment that would make it harder for future constitutional amendments to pass has added nearly 70,000 petition signatures over the past week.

Keep Our Constitution Clean, the political committee sponsoring the amendment, had 753,542 valid petition signatures as of Tuesday evening, according to the Florida Division of elections wesbsite.

The current total is an increase of 67,513 signatures since Thursday and puts the proposal within striking distance of making the 2020 ballot.

It takes 766,200 signatures to make the ballot, a number pegged to 8% of votes cast in the most recent presidential election. The committee must produce the remaining 12,658 signatures by Feb. 1 in order to go before voters in the November general election.

The rules also require sponsors to clear the 8% threshold in at least 14 of Florida’s 27 congressional districts. As of Tuesday, it had hit the mark.

Keep Our Constitution Clean’s proposal would require future amendments be passed by voters twice before they are included in the Florida Constitution.

Increasing the necessary rounds of public approval, from one round, would make Florida’s constitution one of the hardest state constitutions to change.

In October, a survey conducted by St. Pete Polls found the proposed amendment was backed by 49% of voters while 30% were opposed and 21% were undecided.

Constitutional amendments need the approval of 60% of voters to pass.