A Florida campaign has fallen short of collecting enough valid signatures to qualify a marijuana legalization initiative for placement on the November ballot, state officials have announced—though the campaign itself says that determination is “premature.”
Following an aggressive opposition effort marked by litigation, signature invalidations and even criminal investigations led by Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration, the Florida Department of State announced on Sunday that the cannabis campaign “failed to meet the requirements of Florida law for placement on the 2026 General Election ballot.”
But Smart & Safe Florida, the campaign behind the marijuana initiative, said it believes it actually submitted enough signatures to qualify.
“We believe the declaration by the Secretary of State is premature, as the final and complete county-by-county totals for validated petitions are not yet reported,” a statement first noted by Florida Politics says. “We submitted over 1.4 million signatures and believe when they are all counted, we will have more than enough to make the ballot.”
As of Monday, the state Division of Elections’s website showed 783,592 valid signatures for the measure, but it needed 880,062 validated signatures by Sunday to qualify.
Note to Press:
All twenty-two active proposed constitutional amendments by initiative petitions
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
