TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) 鈥� A proposed amendment to Florida’s constitution that would allow recreational marijuana use for adults is one of 22 citizen initiatives that failed to qualify for the 2026 ballot, state officials said.
The Florida Department of State announced Sunday that none of the active proposed constitutional amendments by initiative petition met the legal requirements for placement on the November general election ballot.
The deadline for signatures to qualify for the midterm election was Sunday. , the group behind the marijuana amendment, said they believed they would have the 880,062 signatures needed after all petitions are processed, but show the amendment was about 100,000 signatures short on Monday.
鈥淲e believe the declaration by the Secretary of State is premature, as the final and complete county-by-county totals for validated petitions are not yet reported,鈥� a Smart & Safe statement said. 鈥淲e submitted over 1.4 million signatures and believe when they are all counted, we will have more than enough to make the ballot.鈥�
The exclusion of all amendments follows a yearslong clash between progressive organizers seeking to amend the state鈥檚 constitution and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. In 2024, the governor used to against efforts to legalize and .
For years, Florida voters have turned to the citizens鈥� ballot initiative process to bypass the Republican-dominated Legislature and advance progressive policies, such as raising the minimum wage and restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions.
Last May, DeSantis signed a law creating for citizen-driven ballot initiatives, changes critics say would make it prohibitively expensive and effectively impossible for grassroots campaigners to get issues on the ballot. Since the passage of the law, a campaign to expand Medicaid in the state announced it鈥檚 to get the question on the ballot until 2028.
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