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Florida Require Jury Recommendation on Mandatory Sentences Sought by State Initiative (2026)
| Florida Require Jury Recommendation on Mandatory Sentences Sought by State Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2026 | |
| Topic Civil and criminal trials | |
| Status Cleared for signature gathering | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Florida Require Jury Recommendation on Mandatory Sentences Sought by State Initiative (Initiative #22-14) may appear on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2026.
The ballot initiative would require jury approval or disapproval for any mandatory sentence sought by the state and require the sentencing judge to consider the jury's recommendation and articulate reasons for accepting or refusing jury recommendation.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title is as follows:[1]
| “ | Jury Recommendation for Certain Sentences in Criminal Cases[2] | ” |
Ballot summary
The proposed ballot summary is as follows:[1]
| “ | Requires jury recommendation of approval or disapproval as to any fixed sentence or
mandatory sentence the state seeks to have court impose in criminal cases and for sentencing judges to consider such recommendation and articulate reason for accepting or refusing jury recommendation unless the defendant waives such requirement. Retroactive application.[2] |
” |
Full text
The full text can be accessed here.
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 2026 ballot:
- Signatures: 880,062 valid signatures is required.
- Deadline: The deadline for signature verification is February 1, 2026. Officials have 30 days to check signatures.
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
The organization Floridians for Redeemable People filed the ballot initiative, which was approved for signature gathering on October 26, 2022.[1]
See also
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Florida Division of Elections, "Initiative #22-14," accessed November 19, 2022
- ↑ 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
