The Florida Department of State says all 22 citizen-led amendment proposals aimed for the November election ballot have failed.
The most high-profile amendment would have allowed recreational marijuana in Florida. It needed nearly 900,000 certified signatures by Sunday to be eligible for the November ballot.
But Smart & Safe Florida, the group leading the marijuana campaign, is telling media outlets the announcement is “premature.” It says the “final and complete” signature count by counties hasn’t been reported yet.
That’s not stopping state officials who oppose the effort from celebrating.
“Smart & Safe Florida failed to get its amendment on the 2026 ballot despite numerous cases of fraudulent petitions,” wrote Attorney General James Uthmeier on social media.
The campaign disputes the fraud claims. It also disagreed — unsuccessfully — when the state threw out loads of signatures, putting it below the approval threshold.
The Department of State website currently says it only has around 784,000 signatures.
Smart & Safe Florida already faced an uphill battle.
Its last recreational marijuana measure lost by percentage points in the 2024 election after the state spent millions of taxpayer dollars opposing it.
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Past amendments have ushered in progressive policy changes generally disliked by conservative leadership, like raising the minimum wage and voting rights for those once imprisoned for felonies.
In recent years, including last year, GOP lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved laws making the citizens' initiative process costlier and more difficult.
In fact, other notable campaigns had already postponed their plans until the 2028 election.
Florida Decides Healthcare, which wants a constitutional amendment on Medicaid expansion, said the 2025 law “imposed roadblocks that made signature gathering nearly impossible on a 2026 timeline.”
A campaign pushing a constitutional right to clean water in Florida similarly delayed its effort, saying that law created “insurmountable challenges.”
In the current landscape, groups face tighter deadlines, higher fees, stricter regulations on who can collect signatures and how they’re handled, and steeper fines for any violations.
And last year’s law states that anyone who collects more than 25 non-family petitions for a ballot measure must register with the state or face felony penalties.
Republicans say the restrictions are needed to prevent fraud. Democrats say it’s meant to limit the process.
“The people of Florida deserve to have their say, and now they won't,” said Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa. “It's wrong, plain and simple. It's anti-democratic and unfortunately exactly what we predicted when we were debating this bill last year."
Even when they make the ballot, proposals require a 60% approval threshold.
Most states only require a simple majority. That used to be the case in Florida, but voters approved a legislatively placed amendment that raised it back in 2006.
Yet, notably, the “yes” vote for that amendment didn’t reach 60%.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
