Bill > S7016

Introduced Session

An act relating to amendments to the State Constitution; providing legislative findings and intent; amending s. 15.21, F.S.; requiring the Secretary of State to have received the ballot summary and the full text of the proposed revision or amendment to the State Constitution from the sponsor and to have received the financial impact statement from the Financial Impact Estimating Conference before submitting an initiative petition to the Attorney General; conforming a cross-reference; amending s. 16.061, F.S.; revising the criteria that the Attorney General uses when petitioning the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion related to a proposed revision or amendment to the State Constitution; requiring that a copy of the petition form be provided to the sponsor of the initiative petition; conforming a cross reference; making a technical change; amending s. 97.021, F.S.; revising the definition of the term “petition circulator”; reenacting and amending s. 99.097, F.S.; conforming a cross-reference; conforming provisions to changes made by the act; amending s. 100.371, F.S.; requiring the sponsor of an initiative petition to obtain a certain letter periodically; providing that a failure to obtain such letter results in the expiration of the initiative’s signatures and disbanding of the sponsor’s political committee; providing that certain initiative petition signatures expire and that the sponsor’s political committee is disbanded under specified conditions; providing that such sponsor is not precluded from refiling the proposed amendment as a new petition; prohibiting a sponsor from sponsoring more than one initiative amendment; requiring a sponsor to register as a political committee and submit the ballot title, ballot summary, article and section of the State Constitution being amended, and full text of the proposed amendment to the Secretary of State; requiring that all information be available in alternative formats upon request; requiring the secretary to assign a petition number and submit a copy of the proposed amendment to the Financial Impact Estimating Conference for review, analysis, and a certain estimate; requiring the Division of Elections to publish the forms on which petition signatures must be fixed; deleting a requirement that the secretary adopt certain rules; providing requirements, which are effective on a specified date, for the petition forms; prohibiting persons, beginning on a specified date, from collecting, delivering, or otherwise physically possessing more than a specified number of signed petition forms if they have not registered with the Secretary of State as a petition circulator and have not been issued a petition circulator number; authorizing specified persons to collect signed petitions forms from their immediate family under specified circumstances; defining the term “immediate family”; prohibiting certain persons from collecting signatures or initiative petitions; requiring that applications for registration include specified information; authorizing citizens to challenge a petition circulator’s registration by filing a petition in circuit court; authorizing the court to enjoin the petition circulator from collecting signatures or petition forms until registered; authorizing the division to revoke a petition circulator’s registration under specified circumstances; prohibiting persons from registering to collect signatures or initiative petitions until they complete a required training; providing the requirements for such training; providing civil penalties for the sponsors of initiative amendments that knowingly allow persons to collect petition forms on their behalf and violate specified provisions; prohibiting a sponsor from compensating a petition circulator based on the number of petition forms gathered or the time within which such forms are gathered; providing construction; requiring the division to make forms available to registered petition circulators in a certain format; deleting a requirement that supervisors of elections provide the division information on petition forms assigned to them; requiring sponsors to deliver forms promptly to the supervisor of elections in the county in which a voter resides within a specified timeframe after the form is signed; revising the civil penalties for failing to deliver forms within the prescribed timeframes; providing civil penalties for the sponsors of petitions if the person collecting petition forms on behalf of the sponsor signs the name of another, signs a fictitious name, or fills in missing information on the signed petition form; providing criminal penalties for persons who, while collecting petition forms, copy or retain a voter’s personal identifying information for a reason other than to provide such information to the sponsor of an initiative petition; providing civil penalties for sponsors who mail or provide prefilled initiative petitions; providing that sponsors that discover and report a violation as soon as practicable may not be fined for such violation; requiring the supervisor to record the date a submitted petition is received; requiring the supervisor to notify the division of any misfiled petition; revising the conditions under which a supervisor verifies signatures to include processing of a certain fee; requiring supervisors, beginning on a specified date, to promptly record, in a specified manner, the date each form is received and the date the form is verified as valid; revising the conditions under which a supervisor may verify a signature on an initiative petition form; requiring supervisors to electronically transmit digital images, which must meet a specified standard, of all received petition forms to the division; requiring that such forms be identified as valid or invalid; requiring supervisors to retain all petition forms and identify those forms verified as valid from those deemed invalid until such forms are processed; requiring supervisors to deliver physical forms to the division; requiring the division to retain such forms for a specified timeframe; requiring supervisors to send a notice, which may be returned to the Office of Election Crimes and Security, to voters after their signature is verified, beginning on a specified date; providing requirements for such notice; requiring the Office of Election Crimes and Security to transmit copies of returned notices, upon receipt, to the division; requiring the division to deem the voter petition form invalid if a completed notice is received; providing that supervisors of elections are required to post on their websites the actual costs of signature verification for all petition forms, and that they may increase such costs annually by a specified date; specifying that such costs include costs related to certain actions; requiring supervisors to notify the Office of Election Crimes and Security under a specified condition; requiring the office to conduct specified preliminary investigations; authorizing the office to report findings of such investigations to the statewide prosecutor or a certain state attorney; providing that a signed petition form submitted by an ineligible or unregistered petition circulator must be invalidated; revising information related to signature verification which must be posted on the division’s website; requiring the Secretary of State to rescind the certificate of ballot position if an advisory opinion from the Supreme Court deems the initiative petition invalid; requiring the Financial Impact Estimating Conference to submit the financial impact statement to the Secretary of State; requiring a certain statement to be included on the ballot if the conference does not complete an analysis and financial impact statement within a specified timeframe; providing that only the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, jointly, may convene the conference; revising the membership of the conference; deleting a provision authorizing the court to remand the financial impact statement to the conference to be redrafted; requiring that such statement appear on the petition form and ballot; requiring a sponsor to refile a petition as a new petition under certain circumstances; deleting a provision that deems financial impact statements approved for placement on the ballot under certain circumstances; requiring the Department of State to update petition forms by a specified date; requiring the department to make the petition circulator application available by a specified date; providing that each petition circulator registration expires on a specified date; requiring the department to notify such petition circulators of the expiration of their registration by a specified date; requiring the department to develop a certain training within a specified timeframe; authorizing supervisors of elections to increase the costs of signature verification before a specified date; requiring the supervisors to post such cost on their publicly available websites as soon as the cost is determined; amending s. 101.161, F.S.; requiring that a certain statement be included on the ballot if a financial impact statement was not produced or the Financial Impact Estimating Conference did not meet to produce one; conforming a cross-reference; amending s. 102.111, F.S.; requiring the Elections Canvassing Commission to certify the returns of constitutional amendments; amending s. 102.121, F.S.; requiring the commission to make and sign separate certificates for constitutional amendments; providing requirements for such certificates; amending s. 102.168, F.S.; providing for standing to contest the adoption of a constitutional amendment by any qualified voter or taxpayer; revising the grounds on which such parties may contest an election or a constitutional amendment; providing that the commission and the sponsor of the amendment are indispensable parties in any such action; amending s. 104.185, F.S.; providing criminal penalties for persons who fill in missing information on a signed petition form to secure a ballot position for a candidate, a minor political party, or an issue; amending s. 104.186, F.S.; providing criminal penalties for persons who compensate others based on the number of petition forms gathered, as prohibited by a specified section; amending s. 104.187, F.S.; conforming a cross-reference; creating s. 104.188, F.S.; defining the term “immediate family”; providing criminal penalties for certain persons who collect, deliver, or otherwise physically possess more than a certain number of signed petition forms other than their own or forms belonging to an immediate family member; creating s. 106.151, F.S.; defining the term “public funds”; prohibiting an entity of state government or a person acting on behalf of such entity from expending or authorizing the expenditure of public funds for political advertisements or other communications sent to electors concerning a proposed constitutional amendment or revision; providing applicability; providing construction; amending s. 106.19, F.S.; providing that political committees sponsoring a constitutional amendment are liable for specified civil fines for submitting petition forms that do not provide the name and address of the petition circulator gathering such forms, regardless of whether the petition circulator is paid; amending s. 212.055, F.S.; conforming a cross-reference; amending s. 895.02, F.S.; revising the definition of the term “racketeering activity” to provide criminal and civil penalties for violations of the Florida Election Code relating to irregularities or fraud involving issue petition activities; prohibiting the verification of a signed petition form for a specified timeframe; providing construction; providing effective dates. WHEREAS, the Legislature and the Secretary of State, in their official capacities, have the duty and obligation to ensure ballot integrity and a valid election process, and WHEREAS, ballot integrity is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the constitutionally provided initiative process, and WHEREAS, investigations conducted by the Office of Election Crimes and Security have shown that agents of political committees sponsoring initiative petitions engaged in illegal and fraudulent activities while gathering petition signatures in the lead-up to recent elections, and WHEREAS, the evidence brought forward indicates numerous instances of petition circulators being paid per signature, signing petition forms on behalf of deceased individuals, forging or misrepresenting voter signatures on petition forms, using voters’ personal identifying information without consent, committing perjury, and swearing false oaths, and WHEREAS, compensating a petition circulator based on the number of petition forms gathered is a violation of s. 104.186, Florida Statutes; signing another person’s name, whether dead or alive, or a fictitious name on a petition form is a violation of s. 104.185(2), Florida Statutes; and perjury or swearing a false oath is a violation of s. 837.02(1), Florida Statutes, and all such violations are third degree felonies under Florida law, and WHEREAS, fraudulently using another individual’s personal identification without his or her consent is a violation of s. 817.568, Florida Statutes, and is, at minimum, a third degree felony, and WHEREAS, the fraudulent use of another individual’s personal identifying information becomes a second degree felony with a 3-year mandatory minimum prison sentence if the violation involves the information of more than 10 but fewer than 20 persons, a 5-year mandatory minimum prison sentence if the violation involves the information of more than 20 but fewer than 30 persons, and a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence if the violation involves the information of more than 30 persons, and WHEREAS, despite the fiduciary duty prescribed by Florida law, sponsors of initiative petitions have failed to cooperate with investigations and have attempted to deflect responsibility for the actions of petition circulators to contractors and subcontractors, the sponsors denying that they have custody or control of documents requested by state officials, and WHEREAS, sponsors, contractors, and petition circulators have blatantly attempted to evade investigation by delegating key aspects of petition activities to out-of-state entities, who then subcontracted with other individuals who were even further outside the reach of Florida authorities, and WHEREAS, evidence provided to the Office of Election Crimes and Security by supervisors of elections in several counties showed that petition circulators submitted petition forms on behalf of more than 50 deceased Floridians, and WHEREAS, information provided to the Office of Election Crimes and Security from multiple supervisors of elections and individual Florida voters showed that petition circulators committed perjury and swore false oaths by distributing petition forms with pre-signed attestations to groups of unregistered circulators, who then obtained signatures outside the registered circulator’s presence, and WHEREAS, investigations revealed that after petition forms were signed and submitted by voters, petition circulators tampered with the signed forms by using a website to obtain missing personal identifying information, and then filled in the incomplete petition forms, and WHEREAS, investigations indicated that some otherwise valid petition forms were obtained by fraud, with circulators misleading prospective signatories by telling them that the amendment did something other than what was described in the ballot summary or amendment language, or not showing the signatories what was on the ballot at all, and WHEREAS, evidence showed that petition circulators were able to obtain the four necessary elements of personal identifying information required on petitions — name, address, voter registration number or birthdate, and signature — using publicly available data to commit identity theft and complete dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of petitions without ever actually circulating a petition, and WHEREAS, the Office of Election Crimes and Security received complaints from many Florida voters whose information was fraudulently submitted on forms for at least four initiative petitions circulated for inclusion in the 2024 General Election, and WHEREAS, many of those complaints arose because some supervisors of elections notified a voter when a petition form bearing his or her name was rejected, which prompted such voters to contact the supervisor of elections or the Office of Election Crimes and Security to report potential fraud, and WHEREAS, Florida does not currently restrict eligibility of persons to register as petition circulators, even in cases where such persons are not United States citizens, reside in another state, or have been convicted of a felony but have not had their right to vote restored, and WHEREAS, at least one sponsor of an initiative amendment circulated during the 2024 General Election cycle settled a complaint with the Office of Election Crimes and Security for violations related to the petition process and agreed to pay $164,000 in fines, and WHEREAS, existing fines and penalties levied against petition sponsors engaging in, encouraging, or, at the very least, turning a blind eye to illegal activities related to the petition process appear to be inadequate deterrents, and WHEREAS, given its constitutional underpinnings, the right to propose an initiative by petition is inherent and absolute, but subject to reasonable regulations as necessary to ensure ballot integrity and a valid election process, NOW, THEREFORE,

Don Gaetz (R),  Erin Grall (R), 

Other Sponsors (2)

Laid on Table, refer to CS/HB 1205 (on 04/30/2025)

Official Document