(The Center Square) — A group seeking to put a ballot initiative about expanding Florida’s Medicaid program is suing the state over its new law putting restrictions on the state’s ballot initiative process.
The group, Florida Decides Healthcare, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Sunday with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
U.S. Judge Mark Walker, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, will handle the case.
The political committee is asking the court to strike down the law on the grounds it violates the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and is also seeking attorney fees.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1205 into law on Friday. The bill would put restrictions on ballot initiative drives, including requiring petition collectors to be U.S. citizens and Florida residents and prohibit them from being convicted felons.
The law would also require those that collect more than 25 signatures other than from immediate family to register with the state and undergo two hours of online training.
The new law revises the deadline by which petition forms must be delivered by the petition sponsor from 30 to 10 days.
Ballot initiative sponsors would also have to provide a $1 million bond to the Department of State and fines of $5,000 per petition could be levied if a signature gatherer signs another name, puts in fictitious information or fills out any missing parts of the signature form.
According to the lawsuit, “These financial penalties—many of which are imposed without regard to fault, and some of which are duplicative or overlapping — create a chilling effect on initiative sponsors’ exercise of their constitutional rights, particularly when coupled with the sweeping criminal penalties discussed below.”
In a declaration by Florida Decides Healthcare campaign manager Mitch Emerson, he said his organization has already shut down much of its petition circulation operations.
Political committees would also be banned from doing more than one initiative per election cycle and would limits the number of cycles an initiative sponsor can remain active without achieving the signature threshold for court review to three general elections.
The measure was one of DeSantis’ biggest signature proposals for the legislative session after the fight over two well-funded ballot initiatives that would’ve created a recreational cannabis program and another that would’ve enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.
“Signed the bill to combat petition fraud and prevent the special interest-abuse of our constitutional amendment process,” DeSantis said in a Friday social media post. “This should have been done in January but House leadership blocked it. Glad the Senate’s stronger version prevailed against attempts by the House leadership to water the reforms down.”
While neither ballot initiative reached the 60% threshold, DeSantis and GOP lawmakers said the election showed that the process needed reform after more than $260 million was raised by ballot initiative supporters.
Safe & Smart Florida raised $153 million for Amendment 3, most of it (nearly $145 million) coming from cannabis retailer Trulieve, according to data from the secretary of state’s office.
Floridians Protecting Freedom put Amendment 4 on the ballot and the group received $108 million in contributions, according to state data, with most of those funds coming from the Service Employees International Union and the American Civil Liberties Union.
