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Florida Right to Clean Water Initiative (2024)
| Florida Right to Clean Water Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 5, 2024 | |
| Topic Constitutional rights and Environment | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Florida Right to Clean Water Initiative was not on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 5, 2024.
Measure design
The initiative would have created a "fundamental right to clean and healthy waters," (as defined) in the state constitution and give legal standing to residents, non-governmental organizations, or government entities to sue in order to enforce or defend such rights.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title was as follows:[1]
| “ | Right to Clean and Healthy Waters[2] | ” |
Ballot summary
The proposed ballot summary was as follows:[1]
| “ | This amendment creates a fundamental right to clean and healthy waters. The amendment may be used to sue State executive agencies for harm or threatened harm to Florida’s waters, which include aquatic ecosystems. This amendment defines terms, identifies affected constitutional provisions in Article IV governing the executive branch, provides for civil action enforcement, allows attorney’s and expert witness fees to prevailing plaintiffs, and provides equitable remedies including restoration of waters. [2] | ” |
Full text
The full text can be accessed here.
Sponsors
Florida Right to Clean Water.org 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
- The initiative was approved for circulation on April 22, 2022.[1]
- Signatures were not submitted by the deadline to appear on the 2024 ballot. Sponsors filed a new version of the initiative targeting the 2026 ballot.
See also
External links
- Florida Division of Elections: Initiatives, Amendments, and Revisions database
- Initiative 22-02 information
- Initiative 22-02 full text
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Florida Department of Elections, "Initiative 22-02," accessed April 28, 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
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State of Florida Tallahassee (capital) |
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