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Florida Legislative Approval for Executive Orders Restricting Religious Gatherings Initiative (2024)
| Florida Legislative Approval for Executive Orders Restricting Religious Gatherings Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 5, 2024 | |
| Topic Religion | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Florida Legislative Approval for Executive Orders Restricting Religious Gatherings Initiative (Initiative #21-14) was not on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 5, 2024.
Measure design
The initiative would have required approval from the Florida State Legislature for any executive orders limiting religious gatherings for longer than 21 days.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The proposed title was as follows:[1]
| “ | Freedom to Pray Together: Requires legislative approval for any worship limits longer than 21 days.[2] | ” |
Ballot summary
The proposed ballot summary was as follows:[1]
| “ | Provides that any executive order by the Governor or any other designated governmental authority in the state of Florida cannot close, or limit in size, gatherings of any houses of worship or individually organized gatherings of prayer for greater than 21 calendar days without legislative approval.[2] | ” |
Full text
The full text can be accessed here.
Sponsors
Florida Right to Pray Together sponsored the initiative.[1]
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Florida, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 8% of the votes cast in the preceding presidential election. Florida also has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equaling at least 8% of the district-wide vote in the last presidential election be collected from at least half (14) of the state's 28 congressional districts. Signatures remain valid until February 1 of an even-numbered year.[3] Signatures must be verified by February 1 of the general election year the initiative aims to appear on the ballot.
Proposed measures are reviewed by the state attorney general and state supreme court after proponents collect 25% of the required signatures across the state in each of one-half of the state's congressional districts (222,898 signatures for 2024 ballot measures). After these preliminary signatures have been collected, the secretary of state must submit the proposal to the Florida Attorney General and the Financial Impact Estimating Conference (FIEC). The attorney general is required to petition the Florida Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on the measure's compliance with the single-subject rule, the appropriateness of the title and summary, and whether or not the measure "is facially invalid under the United States Constitution."[4]
The requirements to get an initiative certified for the 2024 ballot:
- Signatures: 891,523 valid signatures
- Deadline: The deadline for signature verification was February 1, 2024. As election officials have 30 days to check signatures, petitions should be submitted at least one month before the verification deadline.
In Florida, proponents of an initiative file signatures with local elections supervisors, who are responsible for verifying signatures. Supervisors are permitted to use random sampling if the process can estimate the number of valid signatures with 99.5% accuracy. Enough signatures are considered valid if the random sample estimates that at least 115% of the required number of signatures are valid.
Details about the initiative
2022 ballot
- The initiative was filed by Jon Loudon. It was approved for circulation on July 7, 2021.[1]
- Sponsors did not submit the required number of signatures to qualify for the 2022 ballot by the deadline on February 1, 2022.[1]
2024 ballot
- Proponents said they would attempt to qualify the initiative for the 2024 ballot.[5]
- The initiative was withdrawn on May 22, 2023.[1]
Signature gathering restrictions lawsuit
| Lawsuit overview | |
| Issue: Whether restrictions imposed by state law on signature gathering for initiative petitions violates the First Amendment and federal equal-protections rights | |
| Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida | |
| Plaintiff(s): Florida Right to Pray Together, Citizens in Charge | Defendant(s): Secretary of State Laurel Lee and Attorney General Ashley Moody |
Source: Justia
Florida Right to Pray Together, the committee supporting the initiative, filed a lawsuit along with Citizens in Charge, a Virginia-based organization, alleging that Florida's laws concerning initiative petition circulation laws impose a "severe and unconstitutional impairment” of First Amendment and equal-protection rights under the U.S. Constitution. Lawyers for plaintiffs argued, "Plaintiffs invite the court to take note that state legislators, who want to be able to collect signatures for their own nomination petitions, refused to apply the same restriction to the circulation of their own ballot access petitions. It is obvious that the new rules are specifically designed to inhibit the ability of voters to connect with initiative petition circulators to advance an agenda outside the control of legislative leaders."[5]
In 2019, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed House Bill 5 into law, which was designed to do the following:
- require paid petition circulators to register with the secretary of state and provide information such as his or her name, address, date of birth, and a circulator affidavit;
- ban paying petitioners based on the number of signatures collected (pay-per-signature);
- require ballot language for a statewide initiative to contain an estimate of the impact on the state and local economy and the overall impact to the state budget;
- require petition forms to be submitted to county supervisors of elections within 30 days of being signed or receive a fine of $50 per petition sheet (or $250 if petitioners or sponsors acted willfully);
- make county supervisors of elections responsible for providing petition forms and keeping lists of registered petitioners and petition forms for each petitioner;
- require a two-thirds (66.67%) vote at a general election to approve local discretionary sales taxes; and
- enact other rules concerning statewide initiative petitions and local measures.
See also
External links
- Florida Division of Elections: Initiatives, Amendments, and Revisions database
- Initiative 21-14 information
- Initiative 21-14 full text
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Florida Department of Elections, "Initiative 21-14," accessed July 15, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Before the passage of Florida Senate Bill 1794 of 2020, signatures remained valid for a period of two years
- ↑ Florida State Senate, "Florida Senate Bill 1794," accessed April 13, 2020
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, "Florida ballot initiative supporters say signature law is unconstitutional," accessed May 19, 2022
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