Backers of a proposed recreational marijuana constitutional amendment are suing Florida’s Secretary of State, Cord Byrd, over the invalidation of roughly 71,000 petition signatures. The legal challenge comes just over a month before the Feb. 1 deadline to submit enough valid signatures to appear on the November 2026 ballot.
Key Points from the Lawsuit:
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Invalidated Petitions: About 42,000 signatures from “inactive” voters and nearly 29,000 gathered by out-of-state petition circulators were disqualified.
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Inactive Voter Issue: Inactive voters remain registered, but are flagged because mail sent to them was undeliverable. Smart & Safe Florida argues their petitions should count, since they are eligible voters.
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Out-of-State Petitioners: The law banning non-Florida residents from collecting signatures was temporarily blocked by a federal injunction in 2025, allowing out-of-state circulators to work legally for about two months. Smart & Safe Florida contends those signatures should remain valid.
Background:
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Smart & Safe Florida previously tried to pass the amendment in 2024 but fell short of the required 60% voter approval, with Gov. Ron DeSantis actively opposing it.
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In a related 2025 court ruling, 200,000 signatures were invalidated for petition formatting issues and failure to include the amendment’s full text.
Next Steps:
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The lawsuit was filed in Leon County Circuit Court, assigned to Judge Angela Dempsey.
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The group must still submit at least 880,062 valid signatures by Feb. 1 to secure a spot on the ballot. As of the latest count, the state shows 675,307 valid signatures.
This case highlights ongoing tensions between citizen-led initiatives and state election rules, and could have a major impact on Florida’s 2026 ballot.
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