Affirmation of U.S. citizenship to vote in Florida elections clears first hurdle towards appearing on 2020 ballot

Organizers of an initiative to codify the prerequisite of U.S. citizenship to vote in Florida state elections have cleared a major hurdle towards the proposal appearing on the 2020 ballot.  

Florida Citizen Voters is the sponsor of the initiative petition. The purpose of the proposed Constitutional Amendment is to clarify the language of Article VI Section 2 of the Florida Constitution to reaffirm citizenship is a prerequisite to being permitted to vote in Florida elections.

Certification of more than 76,620 valid petitions collected in at least 25% of the state’s congressional districts was the first threshold cleared by the sponsor.

According to publicly available documents from the Florida Secretary of State,  as of June 13, 2019 Florida Supervisors of Election have certified a total of 85,695 valid petition signatures to the Division of Elections for the initiative petition.

 “This number represents more than 10% of the total number of valid signatures needed from electors statewide and in at least one-fourth of the congressional districts in order to have the initiative placed on the 2020 general election ballot.”

Achievement of this milestone triggers review of the initiative by the Florida Estimating Impact Conference created pursuant to Chapter 100 section 371 Florida Statutes. The FEIC reviews, analyzes, estimates and prepares financial impact statement associated with proposed constitutional amendment to be placed on the ballot by citizen’s initiative petition.

With passage of HB 5 during the 2019 Legislative Session the FEIC will also consider the estimated economic impact on state and local economies plus the overall impact to the state budget.

The Florida Channel broadcast the first public workshop of the FIEC review on August 1, 2019.