petition signatures

Smart & Safe Florida, the campaign pushing the marijuana amendment, says the pronouncement is “premature” and “final and complete” signature count by counties hasn’t been reported yet.

A circuit judge backed arguments by Smart & Safe Florida, which faces a Sunday deadline for submitting enough valid signatures to put the proposed amendment on the November ballot.

The three-judge panel overturned a circuit court's ruling on inactive voters and upheld a ruling on petitions gathered by nonresidents, with the net effect of invalidating more than 70,000 signatures.

A judge’s split ruling on a ballot measure triggered appeals from both sides, as deadlines loom over disputed petition signatures from inactive voters and out-of-state gatherers.

The state urges a judge to reject a lawsuit challenging directives that invalidated tens of thousands of petition signatures for a proposed ramendment, citing fraud prevention and voter inactivity.

The step sets the stage for a judicial review of the ballot initiative seeking to legalize recreational pot. Justices will hear oral arguments on Feb. 5, according to a schedule posted on court's website.

Lawyers for the Smart & Safe Florida committee said they were waiving the right to appeal Leon County Judge John Cooper's ruling “to provide finality to this matter and certainty to the result.”

Contributions during the quarter included $715,000 from the California-based Tides Foundation and $400,000 from the Florida Policy Institute, a state Division of Elections report shows.

The Senate measure would go further than the House's in some ways. For instance, it would require volunteer petition gatherers — not just paid circulators, as is the case now — to register with the state.

Florida is one of 10 states where the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid for low-income adults has not been implemented.

The signature totals posted Friday on the Division of Elections website showed that the largest number of valid signatures, 54,277, had been collected in Congressional District 14 in Hillsborough and Pinellas.

A small group of students gathered outside the Marshall Student Center on Tuesday to celebrate trans joy and protect civil rights.