Bill adding hurdles for constitutional amendments advances after fierce debate

A House panel advanced a bill that critics fear will be a death blow to the citizen ballot initiative process.

The House Government Operations Subcommittee supported HB 1205 even as community activists and Democrats spoke out overwhelmingly against it during a more than two-hour debate.

Republicans argued that more protections are needed in the election process to protect the state constitution. 

HB 1205 would require petition sponsors to post a $1 million bond before they can pass out petitions, speed up petition deadlines and require people signing petitions to include their driver’s license number or last four digits of their Social Security number.

“Over the past few election cycles, it has become apparent that our citizen initiative process is broken,” said the bill sponsor, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka. “The process has been taken over by out-of-state fraudsters looking to make a quick buck and by special interests intent on buying their way into our constitution.”

The Fort Myers Republican is sponsoring the bill as Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted reforming the constitutional amendment process following last year’s failed Amendment 4 abortion rights initiative. Following the end of Roe v. Wade, a volunteer-led effort helped collect more than 1 million petitions to put Amendment 4 on the ballot. DeSantis became personally involved and deployed state resources to help defeat the initiative in November.

Persons-Mulicka called the $1 million bond a “reasonable amount” as she faced critics who spoke out against it.

“The bond is intended to protect the public, protect the integrity of the petition process, and provide a surety against any future fines,” she said, bringing up the Amendment 4 political action committee’s $164,000 settlement with the state over allegations the paid petition circulators submitted fraudulent petitions.

Lauren Brenzel, the former campaign director for Amendment 4, told lawmakers, “I’m hearing a ton of misinformation about Amendment 4 in this committee, and I want to address it. First of all, Amendment 4 had the highest validity rate of any petition in recent history.”

Persons-Mulicka said the changes also included requiring signed petitions to be turned in within 10 days, instead of the previous 30 days, to give Elections Supervisors more time to review them. 

As for the additional personal information required on the petitions, she said, “We need to put some type of protection on the actual petition itself, and that’s where the identification requirements come in. It’s the same identity requirements required for a voter registration application.”

When a lawmaker asked if other states had similar rules in place for ballot initiatives, Persons-Mulicka answered, “We’re trying to be the leader again in the nation.” 

In a Republican-controlled Legislature, citizen-led ballot initiatives have succeeded in the past to install more progressive proposals, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour or reinstating voting rights for most felons. But ballot initiatives already face a steep challenge to win since they must get at least 60% of the vote.

“Our citizen’s amendment process allows anyone, regardless of wealth or resources, to propose an idea, whether good or bad. This has allowed fantastic ideas like Everglades funding, amendments on property taxes and many others to be enshrined in our constitution for generations to enjoy,” said Rep. Daryl Campbell, a Democrat from Fort Lauderdale.

Several conservative Christian groups and the Florida Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of the bill to protect the constitution from being changed. Meanwhile, student activists and others argued the proposed $1 million bond meant only special interest groups would be able to afford to bring forth ballot initiatives.

Campbell argued that lawyer John Morgan or groups like Americans for Prosperity should not be only the ones moving constitutional amendments forward. “I want everyone to have an equal shot,” he said.