TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It’s a race to the finish with a looming Sunday deadline for the renewed effort to give voters a second shot at legalizing recreational marijuana.
The Smart & Safe campaign is still 120,000 signatures short according to the database maintained by the state.
The Smart & Safe campaign claims 270,000 petitions have been tossed out by the state over the course of its two-year petition gathering effort.
In a statement, the Smart & Safe campaign accused the Department of State of, “using every means necessary to stifle the voices of over a million Florida voters who have lawfully and legally signed petitions”.
Florida’s Attorney General has opened at least 50 criminal investigations into alleged petition fraud related to the legalization effort and teased dozens more will be announced in the coming days.
“At this point, it is apparent that Smart & Safe Florida’s petition fraud touches nearly all of Florida’s 67 counties,” Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on social media Thursday.
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Jodi James with Florida Cannabis Action Network has worked on citizen-led initiatives in the past.
“Everyone wants fair and clean elections, but fair and clean elections means that every vote is counted, every vote is counted properly and it also means not putting the heavy hand of government into the process,” James said.
She noted Florida lawmakers have spent years passing laws aimed at restricting the citizen initiative process.
And while state leaders have emphasized alleged cases of fraud, the bulk of the invalidated petitions were tossed due to a lack of compliance with those new laws like stringent return deadlines and requirements for petition gatherers to be Florida residents and the full amendment text to be included on petition forms.
“If Smart & Safe isn’t able to get this to the ballot this time, I think it’s going to have a chilling effect on future initiatives being able to make the ballot,” James said.
Voters like Raheem Moses told Action News Jax they’re skeptical the state’s efforts are truly centered around election integrity, instead suggesting the ordeal stinks of politics.
“I strongly believe that they’re throwing all these ballots out there, holding up the process. They don’t really want it to go through,” Moses said.
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Brandon Austin said he feels if the initiative doesn’t make the ballot, he and millions of other voters’ voices will be silenced.
“I mean, we’re supposed to live in a democratic country and that’s supposed to be the idea that the people make the decisions first,” Austin said.
In 2024, a similar ballot initiative led by Smart & Safe got almost 56 percent voter support, but fell short of the 60 percent needed to pass.
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