Florida Democrats slam state for disqualifying ballot measures as James Uthmeier promises more fraud probes

The Florida Democratic Party (FDP) is hammering the Florida Department of State for administrative obstacles blocking all citizen initiatives from the 2026 ballot.

“Citizen-led initiatives are an important part of Florida elections because it’s the way everyday people can hold politicians accountable when they refuse to listen. So when the State claims that not a single citizen initiative qualifies for the ballot, it’s not just suspicious, it’s part of a deliberate effort to silence voters,” said FDP Chair Nikki Fried.

Only one citizen initiative came close to making the ballot: a recreational pot amendment that a majority of voters favored in 2024 but which fell short of a required 60% threshold to pass.

Representatives from the Smart & Safe Florida campaign behind that measure said they believe the group submitted the more than 880,000 valid petition signatures needed to make the ballot, but saw hundreds of thousands of forms tossed, resulting in court challenges.

Only two other campaigns had more than 10,000 petitions validated by elections officials.

A proposal to require a Medicaid expansion submitted 75,855 verified signatures. Florida Decides Healthcare (FDH) announced Sunday that it has already launched a new effort to land a measure on the 2028 ballot.

Another campaign hoped to put a right to clean and healthy waters in the state constitution, but only 51,261 petitions were ever accepted by the state.

In July, a new law (HB 1205) took effect, imposing additional hurdles on citizen campaigns for Florida ballot measures. Those include a requirement to register all signature gatherers with the state, a two-hour training course, and a 10-day timeline for submitting signed petitions.

Fried suggested the legal obstacles were furthering a protection of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political power even on matters popular with voters.

“When politicians are this desperate to block the ballot, it tells you exactly who they’re afraid of: the people,” Fried said.

“We’ve seen this Governor not only create his own police force to intimidate voters who participate in petition initiatives, but also steal millions of state dollars from children and families to control the outcome of elections. Now they’re denying ballot access while redrawing maps to favor the Republican Party, because they’ve seen how Democrats have performed since Trump has taken office. This is not democracy, it’s domination.”

Of note, Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican who led the 2024 campaign against the pot measure while serving as DeSantis’ Chief of Staff, has repeatedly accused the marijuana campaign of fraud. That included a statement hours after the Department of State announced the measure would not make the ballot.

“Smart & Safe Florida failed to get its amendment on the 2026 ballot despite numerous cases of fraudulent petitions,” he said. “The work of our Office of Statewide Prosecution will continue. We will protect the integrity of Florida’s Constitution by holding every last fraudster accountable.”