Gabrielle Russon
One reason Amendment 3 and Amendment 4 failed to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights in Tuesday’s election?
Blame pregnant sows.
A majority of voters supported both ballot initiatives, but not enough to propel them past the 60% approval rate to pass.
Florida makes it harder than most states to pass a constitutional amendment. With a few exceptions (like Colorado, which has a 55% approval rate), most states require measures to get at least 50.1% of the vote to win.
The story of what makes Florida so tough begins in 1996 when Republicans took control of the Legislature for the first time in a hundred years. They never let it go.
“They began to get frustrated with some of the constitutional amendments that were being proposed and passed because one of the ways that people can go around the Legislature in Florida is to propose an initiative petition,” said University of Central Florida political science assistant professor Aubrey Jewett.
By the early 2000s, voters approved class-size limits, created universal pre-K, and building a high-speed rail system to connect five cities.
“Conservatives at the time were concerned,” Jewett said. “Because of the cost. Again, (the initiatives) didn’t have any particular extra tax mechanism or anything, but they were requiring things that were going to cost money.”
Perhaps “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Jewett said, was when voters also approved an animal rights ballot initiative to enshrine protections for pregnant sows into the state constitution. With 55% of the vote, the measure passed in 2002.
“But really pregnant pigs, is that the kind of thing that should be in the Florida constitution?” was the mindset back then, Jewett said.
Jewett also pointed out that another argument for Florida to take action was the high bar for changing the U.S. Constitution, which requires a three-fourths vote.
In 2006, lawmakers introduced a ballot initiative seeking to raise the approval rate to 60% for future ballot questions.
“The biggest irony of all is that it passed, but only with 58% of the vote,” Jewett said.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce, which pushed for the 60% change, argued that it would prevent the most controversial proposals from passing.
Today, Florida’s 60% threshold makes it tougher — but not impossible — for progressive initiatives to get enacted, like restoring felon rights, raising the minimum wage, and legalizing medical marijuana.
But Tuesday’s election proved the challenges ahead since Republicans have made big gains in Florida and the state turns redder, Jewett said.
“The majority of Floridians spoke last night. They do not want this (six-week abortion) ban. They made it very loud and very clear,” said Lauren Brenzel, Yes on 4 campaign director, after 57% supported Amendment 4. “And had we been any other state, we would be celebrating right now.”
22 comments
Arturo
November 6, 2024 at 3:16 pm
Naive, uninformed. 60% was a result of Big Business, Big Medical and plaintiffs bar getting together after incredibly expensive med mal referendum. Both sides agreed that these Uber expensive ballot questions need to be stopped.
Michael
November 6, 2024 at 3:21 pm
It is what it is in Florida. After all, it has by far the largest number of senile citizens, I mean, senior citizens, per square mile of any state in the union.
You can’t really expect their failing minds and already failed bodies to render any consideration for the bodies of others.
Kammy Is Toast
November 6, 2024 at 4:36 pm
You talking about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi?
FLPatriot
November 8, 2024 at 9:28 am
Apparently has a very large population of low IQers that vote red.
rbruce
November 6, 2024 at 3:50 pm
50.1% is too low a measure to change the State Constitution.
Hung Wiil
November 6, 2024 at 10:25 pm
Right on. Look at Turkey, Greece, and Chile. Supermajority rules.
Rita Joseph
November 6, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Ballots can’t change our moral obligations. No state’s ballot results can set aside the US Constitution’s founding principle that forbids the deliberate killing of our fellow human beings.
There can be no ballot results that can set aside the US Constitution’s founding principle that forbids the deliberate killing of our fellow human beings. Both science and reason tell us that our unborn children are fellow human beings, smaller than us but already belonging to our human family. Once conceived, each new human being is already one of us—the very same human being from conception to natural death—unique, lovable, always deserving of our protection.
The Founders recognized the “self-evident” truth that, for all human beings created equal, their right to life is the unalienable gift of “their Creator.”
Cheesy Floridian
November 6, 2024 at 9:03 pm
Please stop Rita and save it for Sunday
SallyB
November 7, 2024 at 8:39 am
Amendments 3 & 4 were defeated and will likely not appear on the ballot for the foreseeable future. Both matters have been, and will continue to be, in the hands of the Legislature.
TJC
November 7, 2024 at 2:41 pm
“…always deserving of our protection.”
Until they are born, that is. Then the State of Florida, like most Red states, says “You’re on your own, Mom and Child,” offering as little health care, food protection, and child care money as possible, if any at all. Once that kid is born, the mother of that child is told — by the State and by a few narrow-minded commenters here — that she shouldn’t have made the baby if she couldn’t take care of it.
I certainly respect and understand your convictions on this matter, and you write from the heart as well as the mind. I hope you and others like you will also make an effort to help Moms and their children after those children are born. Our Governor used millions in taxpayers’ money to go after this amendment (successfully), now perhaps he can be persuaded to spend millions helping the newborns who need it. What’s good for those babies is good for the future of Florida.
George
November 7, 2024 at 8:48 pm
We kill people all the time. It’s a national pastime.
Sara Tiger
November 11, 2024 at 5:20 pm
The constitution doesn’t say that or mean that at all. All men are created equal but death is something that we all experience. If I were you I would stick to the scientific reasoning that Life begins at conception. You really cannot prove it by scripture.
David
November 6, 2024 at 6:14 pm
I think we need an initiative in 2026 to change the referendum threshold back to 50.1% Sign me up !
Fred S
November 6, 2024 at 6:52 pm
Go live in the People’s Democratic Republic of Massachusetts….
Cheesy Floridian
November 6, 2024 at 9:02 pm
I think 55%
Hung Wiil
November 6, 2024 at 10:27 pm
It wont get the 60% to pass, tool.
Silly Wabbit
November 7, 2024 at 2:42 pm
You tool.
SallyB
November 7, 2024 at 8:41 am
It will never happen. Even Vegas agrees.
Stockmarket
November 8, 2024 at 1:42 pm
No abortion,no welfare because of new welfare reform. What happens to poor babies
CW
November 8, 2024 at 2:39 pm
I really think 51% to 55% is logical number for actual majority. The “Super” majority of 60% is just too high. It restricts the will of the voters.
Tom Palmer
November 8, 2024 at 4:58 pm
What the pregnant pig amendment accomplished was to prevent factory hog farms from becoming established in rural areas of Florida along with their manure lagoons that “accidentally” leak from time to time, sending all of this waste into the nearest river. as has occurred repeatedly in Norh Carolina and other places.
The 60 percent rule, as noted above was really about preserving the best Legislature money can buy.
It's Complicated
November 11, 2024 at 11:55 am
People are missing the point. Prior to this change, the State Constitution was being amended by a tiny percentage of the voters. Some of those Constitutional Amendments had ~20% of the voters participating in that election vote on the issue, so 10% plus one vote of those participating in the election could amend the Constitution. If the election had 60% turnout, and only 20% of the voters dropped that far down the ballot, then ~6% of registered voters could amend the Constitution. Does that not seem problematic to people? Thank you Florida Chamber of Commerce for leading the charge to fix this process.
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