POLITICS: Florida Republicans just made one jaw-dropping move that has Democrats enraged – USSA News

Democrats are watching their power slip away in Florida.

But this new law will make it harder for them to push their radical agenda.

And Florida Republicans just made one jaw-dropping move that has Democrats enraged.

Republicans fight back against outside interests trying to change Florida’s Constitution

Florida Republicans are taking decisive action to protect the state’s Constitution from being hijacked by outside special interests.

The Florida Legislature just passed a bill (HB 1205) that will add more safeguards to the citizen-led constitutional amendment process, sending it to Governor Ron DeSantis for his signature.

Democrats are furious because the new law would make it much harder for progressive groups to push their radical agenda through ballot initiatives rather than through the normal legislative process.

Under the new bill, anyone collecting more than 25 signed petitions would be required to register with the state as an official petition circulator and undergo two hours of online training.

The legislation also shortens the timeline to turn in signed petitions from 30 days to 10 days and adds stiffer penalties for petition sponsors who violate the rules.

Democrats claim Republicans are silencing voters

Democrats didn’t hold back their anger about the new restrictions.

“Those pesky Amendments 3 and 4 just came too damn close to passing. So what are we going to do? We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Boca Raton Democrat Senator Tina Polsky said. “We’re going to make it so hard and so expensive that only corporate interests are going to be able ever to get a citizens’ initiative on the ballot.”

Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, was equally outraged.

“How have our politics gotten so twisted that we’re now saying that Floridians can secretly carry an unlimited amount of loaded firearms without a registered permit,” Smith said. “But if they have more than five signed petitions in their possession, they have committed a third-degree felony, where their voting rights will be revoked, and they may go to prison for up to five years?”

The bill went through some back-and-forth between chambers, with the House amending it to increase the number of allowable petitions from 5 to 25 before registration is required.

Republicans say they’re protecting Florida from fraud

Republican lawmakers defended the bill as necessary to protect the integrity of Florida’s constitution.

“This is not a bill to restrict. It is a bill to protect to make sure that our constitutional system is one of integrity and that it’s free of fraud,” Senator Jennifer Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican, said.

Senator Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican, echoed these sentiments.

“We’re doing this because we want to reduce the bad actions,” Gaetz said. “We want to reduce the fraud. We want to reduce the opportunities for people to pervert the system.”

According to Senator Erin Grall, there were 50 active criminal investigations related to petitions at the Office of Statewide Prosecution as of late 2024, with 18 arrests, 13 pleas, and four cooperation agreements stemming from last year’s elections.

“Many circulators and petition collection contractors are located out of the state, making it difficult to obtain investigative information,” Grall noted.

The battle lines are drawn

The Florida Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, Mark Wilson, praised the legislation, calling it “a much-needed step in the right direction to protect Floridians and the Florida Constitution they live under from out-of-state and special interests.”

“For decades, the Florida Chamber has led the effort to safeguard our state’s foundational document because Floridians and local businesses across our state deserve a constitution that provides certainty and stability, not one that is up for sale every two years,” Wilson said.

But progressive advocacy groups see the bill as a direct attack on democracy.

“Point blank, this is an attack on our democracy and follows an undeniable pattern in Florida where state officials want to silence anyone who doesn’t agree with them and ensure people can’t decide for themselves how they’re governed,” All Voting Is Local’s Florida Director Brad Ashwell said.

Republicans maintain that the state has no obligation to make amending the constitution easy.

“It’s not the state’s obligation to make it easy to amend the Constitution,” Grall argued. “These are these outside people, influences, corporations that want to amend our Constitution. It’s not our job to support that or fund that.”

This new law comes after last year’s failed citizen-led ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana and protect abortion rights, both of which fell short of the 60% vote needed to pass but came close enough to frighten Republican lawmakers.