Citizens collecting signatures in Miami. (Photo by Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg via Alamy)
By Laurie Mermet | MediaLab@FAU
May 28, 2025
The citizen petition process that gave Floridians higher minimum wages, medical marijuana and the restoration of voting rights for felons just hit a wall of new restrictions. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 1205 into law on May 2, transforming how Floridians can propose constitutional amendments.
Advocates call it fraud prevention. Critics call it an attack on democracy.
Under the new law, which passed the House 81-30 and the Senate 28-9, anyone carrying more than 25 signed petitions must register with the state and complete mandatory training starting Oct. 1. Petition collectors have 10 days to turn in signatures to election offices.
Voters now have to include their driver’s license number, state ID number, or last four digits of their Social Security number when signing petitions. County election offices will mail voters to confirm their signatures are real.
Groups can only sponsor one amendment at a time, and the state will investigate if more than 25% of signatures in any batch are invalid.
The law stems from battles over 2024’s Amendment 4, which would have restored abortion rights in Florida to what they were before the six-week law took effect. Andrew Shirvell, who runs Florida Voice for the Unborn – a pro-life lobbying organization based in Tallahassee – says his group fought the abortion petition for nearly two years. He argued the previous system was broken.
“It's very important to make sure that going forward, that safeguards are in place to ensure the integrity of this petition gathering process. The previous system was abused and misused," Shirvell said.
The group behind Amendment 4, Floridians Protecting Freedom, was fined $186,000 after state investigators found fraudulent signatures. The amendment got on the ballot but failed to reach the required 60% threshold. It didn’t pass, but it garnered more than 57% of the vote.
State Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka, who co-sponsored the bill, put it simply: “The initiative petition process is broken, and we need to put in safeguards to protect the citizens of the state of Florida from the known fraud we know is occurring.”
Shirvell argues the requirements are basic common sense.
“I think everybody should be able to agree that if you are circulating petitions to Florida voters, then the circulator themselves should be a Florida voter, should be a U.S. citizen, should be a legal resident of Florida,” he said.
He compared petition-signing to airport security.
“We have ID and everything else in place for flying on airplanes,” Shirvell said. “Why wouldn’t we want that verification for something so substantial like changing our state constitution?”
Critics see something much darker. Keisha Mulfort from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida calls the law “a blatant power grab by the legislature and the governor.”
“This is a dangerous attempt to silence the will of the people and it is designed and calculated to take away the voices of Floridians,” Mulfort said in an interview with MediaLab. “Citizen-led amendments have been used in the past to improve the lives of floridians when lawmakers have failed to act in their interests.”
Mulfort said citizen amendments have been essential when lawmakers ignored voters on issues like education funding, minimum wage increases, environmental protection and voting rights.
“The citizen-led amendment process is part of our constitution,” she said, pointing to Article 11, Section 3, which reserves amendment power to the people. “This is a direct attack on direct democracy.”
She dismissed claims about fraud.
“It's not about transparency, it's not about accountability,” Mulfort said. “It is a calculated strategy to silence everyday Floridians while consolidating the power in the hands of a few.”
Even supporters admit the changes will make citizen amendments much more expensive. Shirvell acknowledged that under the new rules, “it would take millions upon millions of dollars to get a pro-life amendment to the state constitution before voters.”
That reality has already triggered a federal lawsuit. Four groups, including Florida Decides Healthcare, Smart & Safe Florida, The League of Women Voters of Florida, and the League of United Latin American Citizens — sued in federal court on May 5.
The groups argue HB 1205 “imposes vague, burdensome, and punitive restrictions on the constitutional amendment process that threaten to chill core political speech and discourage civic participation,” violating the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Florida Decides Healthcare, which is working to expand Medicaid in 2026, issued a sharp statement after the bill passed: “Today, politicians in Tallahassee — led by those who fear the will of the people — voted to attack Floridians’ fundamental freedom to vote on the laws that govern their lives.”
Smart & Safe Florida, which is working on marijuana legalization for 2026, had collected about 219,000 signatures as of May 19, roughly 25% of what they need. Their lawyers argue that the one-amendment limit is “an outright ban on core political speech bearing zero relation to ballot integrity.”
Both groups must collect 880,000 certified voter signatures by Feb. 1, 2026 to qualify.
The first legal battle over Florida’s new ballot initiative restrictions happened on May 22, when Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker heard arguments on whether to block parts of HB 1205.
Walker asked both sides to “please be patient,” as he considers a written ruling. He has not set a date for his decision.