Florida campaign working on a cannabis legalization initiative for the 2026 ballot has filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging that the state took “unlawful’ steps to invalidate about 200,000 of the signatures they submitted.
Smart & Safe Florida filed the lawsuit against Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit last week, contesting the secretary’s claims that signature verification criteria render invalid any petitions that didn’t include the full text of the initiative.
The campaign claimed that such a rule “was not contemplated” by statute regarding ballot requirements. The secretary, however, ordered earlier this month that “all County Supervisors of Elections invalidate upwards of 200 000 Plaintiff’s Petitions that Supervisors previously verified according to the explicit statutory criteria.”
On Monday, a spokesperson for the campaign told MEDCAN24 that the lawsuit was meant to “require Secretary of State to adhere to Florida Law and prevent State from denying Florida voters signed petitions the opportunity to be heard.”
It’s that simple. “We want the Florida law to be enforced by the court,” said they. “The state is trying to make changes after the fact and depriving these registered voter their voice.”
Politico reported that Secretary of State’s order to invalidate petitions was made “less than 4 months” before February 1, 2026 deadline for certification.
The secretary’s office initially sent a cease-and-desist letter to Smart & Safe Florida in March, advising the campaign about its interpretation of the rules around including the full text of the proposed initiative on its signature petitions, “without pointing to any statute, regulation, or order” to support its enforceability.
According to the lawsuit, “The Secretary’s delegated authority is to dictate the requirements and style of the citizen initiative form. However, the Secretary does not possess the power to create additional criteria for verification that were not considered by the Legislature.” “No Florida statute…expressly or impliedly requires that the Full Text Form be provided or displayed to a voter prior to signing a petition.”
The campaign, despite legal concerns about the new signature criteria, complied with Secretary’s Directive and included the entire text in petitions. But more than six months after the initial contact, Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews on October 3 emailed all of the state’s 63 county supervisors “directing them to invalidate any Smart & Safe petition” that voters signed before the full initiative text was added.
The lawsuit states that “While it is possible that the Secretary would like voters to be able to review the Full Text Form prior to signing their petition, no law or regulation requires that the voter must read the entire text in order for the petition to be verified and counted.” The Secretary’s directive is incorrect, illegal, ultra-vires and null.
“Because of the Secretary’s Directive, Smart & Safe is in doubt as to its rights and responsibilities as the sponsor of the Proposed Amendment,” it added.
The campaign asks the court for a ruling that there is no authority in law for the secretary of state to “impose extra verification criteria” on signatures of petitions. It also wants the state to refrain from invalidating valid petitions under Secretary’s Directive, and to restore petitions that have been allegedly illegally invalidated.
Aside from the challenge of the signature requirement, the way the state is handling this initiative has another peculiar wrinkle. It appears that the secretary of the state missed the deadline set by statute for the submission of the measure to Florida Supreme Court to be reviewed after the threshold was met of 220 016 valid signatures.
According to the state Division of Elections, Smart & Safe Florida has collected valid 662,543 signatures at last count. The campaign needs 880.062 valid signatures to be on the ballot by February 1, 2020. In June, the state affirmed that the campaign collected enough for the initiative to trigger the fiscal and judicial review.
It is the second time the campaign has appeared on the ballot. They successfully secured ballot placement for a 2024 version of the initiative–and a majority did vote to pass it, but not enough to meet the state’s steep 60 percent threshold to approve a constitutional amendment.
If the court affirms that the state has the right to set new criteria for signatures, then the campaign is at serious risk.
In the background of this lawsuit, a federal judge in August delivered a win to Smart & Safe Florida—granting “complete relief” from provisions of a law Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican governor of Florida, signed the law to place other restrictions on gathering signatures.
DeSantis didn’t sign the marijuana initiative law in May, but it was a concern of supporters who feared that this could compromise a complex and expensive process for collecting signatures. This is because the law would prevent non-residents or non-citizens to collect signatures on ballot measures.
In March of this year, however, two Democratic Congressmen from Florida requested that the federal government investigate what was described by them as a “potentially unlawful divert” of Medicaid funds through a DeSantis-affiliated group. The money used was to combat a citizen ballot measure that had been vehemently fought by DeSantis, and would have legalized adult marijuana.
This letter was sent in response to allegations that $10 million from a settlement with the state of Florida had been improperly donated to the Hope Florida Foundation. The foundation then sent the money on to two nonprofits which, in turn, sent $8.5 million to an anti-Amendment 3 campaign.
According to reports, a grand jury has been formed in order to gather evidence before possible prosecutions.
The governor said in February that the newest marijuana legalization measure is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.
DeSantis: “More than one perspective exists on marijuana. It shouldn’t be in the Constitution. You can vote for your legislator if you are strongly against it. You can go back and talk to candidates who you feel will be capable of delivering what your vision for that is.”
“But when you put these things in the Constitution—and I think, I mean, the way they wrote, there’s all kinds of things going on in here. He said, “I think the Florida Supreme Court will have a lot of trouble with this.”
The latest initiative was filed with the secretary of state’s office just months after the initial version failed during the November 2024 election—despite an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Smart & Safe Florida is hoping the revised version will succeed in 2026. The campaign—which in the last election cycle received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry stakeholders, principally the multi-state operator Trulieve—incorporated certain changes into the new version that seem responsive to criticism opponents raised during the 2024 push.
It now explicitly states, for example, that “smoking or vaping marijuana in public places is prohibited.”The law states in another section that “the legislature must approve regulations regulating when, where, and how marijuana can be consumed by public.”
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Last year, the governor accurately predicted that the 2024 cannabis measure from the campaign would survive a legal challenge from the state attorney general. The governor’s reasoning for believing that this version will face a completely different outcome is not clear.
While there’s uncertainty around how the state’s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released in February showed overwhelming bipartisan voter support for the reform—with 67 percent of Florida voters backing legalization, including 82 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans.
However, the results conflict with another recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a proactive opponent of legalization, that found majority support for the reform among likely voter (53 percent) but not enough to be enacted under the 60 percent requirement.
Another poll of Florida Republican voters showed just 40 percent of that demographic said they’d vote in favor of the legalization proposal.
Separately, a Florida GOP senator claimed recently that the legalization campaign “tricked” Trump into supporting the 2024 measure by misleading him and the general public about key provisions.
Trump had said in September, just before the elections, that Amendment 3 “would be very good for the State”.
Before making the comments, Trump met with the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers, as well as with a GOP state senator who is in favor of the reform.
Florida officials actively revoke the registration of medical marijuana patients and caregivers who have criminal convictions related to drugs. DeSantis signed the policy into law in early this year. The provisions in question direct the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.
Read the Smart & Safe Florida campaign’s lawsuit against the state over petition criteria below:
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