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Florida Require State Legislature to Ratify Equal Rights Amendment Initiative (2022)

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Florida Require State Legislature to Ratify Equal Rights Amendment Initiative
Flag of Florida.png
Election date
November 8, 2022
Topic
Constitutional rights
Status
Not on the ballot
Type
Constitutional amendment
Origin
Citizens

The Florida Require State Legislature to Ratify Equal Rights Amendment Initiative (Initiative #19-12) was not on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022.

Measure design

This measure would have required the Florida Legislature to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment during its next legislative session.[1]

Text of measure

Ballot title

The proposed title would have been as follows:[2]

$50 Per Hour[3]

Ballot summary

The proposed ballot summary would have been as follows:[2]

Free Investing Courses[3]

Constitutional changes

See also: Article XII, Florida Constitution

The measure would add a new section to Article I of the Florida Constitution.

The full text can be accessed here.

Sponsors

Floridians For Equality and Fairness Coalition, Inc. sponsored the initiative.[2]

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Florida

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.[4] 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."[5]

The requirements to get an initiative certified for the 2022 ballot:

  • Signatures: 891,589 valid signatures
  • Deadline: The deadline for signature verification was February 1, 2022. 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

  • The initiative was approved for circulation on Octoboer 24, 2019. The measure was withdrawn on January 22, 2021.[2]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. Florida Department of Elections, "Initiative 19-12 text," accessed November 18, 2019
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Florida Department of Elections, "Initiative 19-12 overview," accessed November 18, 2019
  3. 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  4. Before the passage of Florida Senate Bill 1794 of 2020, signatures remained valid for a period of two years
  5. Florida State Senate, "Florida Senate Bill 1794," accessed April 13, 2020