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Florida Voting Rights Initiative (2026)
| Florida Voting Rights Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2026 | |
| Topic Voting policy measures and Civil rights | |
| Status Cleared for signature gathering | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Florida Voting Rights Initiative (Initiative #23-08) may appear on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2026.
The ballot initiative would provide that the right to vote shall not be abridged on account of race, ethnicity, religion, language, education, gender, sexual orientation, criminal conviction or sentence, incarceration, or legal financial obligation.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title is as follows:[1]
| “ | The Comprehensive Voting Rights Protection Act of Florida[2] | ” |
Ballot summary
The proposed ballot summary is as follows:[1]
| “ | This amendment ensures that no Florida citizen may be denied the right to vote based on race, ethnicity, religion, language, education, gender, sexual orientation, criminal conviction or sentence, incarceration, legal financial obligation, or any related ground. The only exceptions are no person convicted of terrorism, treason, or voter fraud, and no person adjudicated to be mentally incompetent, shall be qualified to vote until restoration of civil rights or removal of disability.[2] | ” |
Full text
The full text can be accessed here.
Background
Amendment 4 (2018)
Florida Amendment 4, approved by voters in 2018, was designed to automatically restore the right to vote for people with prior felony convictions, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense, upon completion of their sentences, including prison, parole, and probation.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) said that Amendment 4 would require the Florida State Legislature to pass implementing legislation for the amendment before it could take effect.
Florida Senate Bill 7066 (SB 7066) was signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) on June 28, 2019. SB 7066 was designed to implement parts of Amendment 4 of 2018. Most notably, SB 7066 was designed to require convicted felons to complete "all terms of sentence" including full payment of restitution, or any fines, fees, or costs resulting from the conviction, before they could regain the right to vote. Lawsuits were filed against Senate Bill 7066, in which plaintiffs argued that requiring payment of fines and fees before being able to vote was unconstitutional.
On September 11, 2020, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Florida can require former felons to pay all fines and fees before regaining the right to vote. The court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show that their constitutional rights were violated. The court wrote in its ruling, "The felons complain that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain the facts that determine eligibility to vote under Amendment 4 and Senate Bill 7066, but this complaint is only another version of the vagueness argument we have already rejected. The Due Process Clause does not require States to provide individual process to help citizens learn the facts necessary to comply with laws of general application. ... States are constitutionally entitled to set legitimate voter qualifications through laws of general application and to require voters to comply with those laws through their own efforts. So long as a State provides adequate procedures to challenge individual determinations of ineligibility—as Florida does—due process requires nothing more."[3][4]
For detailed coverage of Senate Bill 7066, the current status of the bill, and lawsuits concerning the bill, click 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.[5] 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."[6]
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
- Floridians for Redeemable People filed the ballot initiative on September 14, 2023.[1]
See also
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Florida Division of Elections, "Initiative #23-08," accessed September 19, 2023
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Law 360, "BREAKING: 11th Circ. Sides With Fla. In Felon Voting Rights Dispute," accessed September 11, 2020
- ↑ Document Cloud, "Jones v Florida," accessed September 11, 2020
- ↑ 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
