Zero Citizens Initiatives on the November ballot. How Florida made it Harder For Voters to Push Bills Forward.
Florida Made It Harder in 2025 to Put a Citizen Initiative on the Ballot. Now There Are None.
For decades, Florida voters used the citizen initiative process to put issues before the public that the Legislature would not touch, from restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions to raising the minimum wage. In 2026, for what appears to be the first time in decades, not a single citizen-driven measure will appear on the November ballot.
This has become a real roadblock for many citizens, including Polk County mom Ashlee Schilling, fighting for policy change following the death of her 19-year-old son.
A Polk County Mother seeks justice for her son with a petition for Blue’s Law, but citizen Initiatives are almost impossible
Elections officials confirmed that all 22 active proposed constitutional amendments by citizen initiative failed to meet requirements for the 2026 general election ballot. Advocates had warned for months it would happen. A 2025 state law, they said, made it effectively impossible to qualify.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1205 on May 2, 2025. The law limits how long a petition can remain active without hitting 25% of the required signatures, caps sponsorship to one petition per political committee, and requires all completed petition forms to be submitted within 10 days. It also mandates registration of all signature gatherers with the state, requires a two-hour training course, and bars noncitizens, non-Florida residents, and felons who have not had their voting rights restored from circulating petitions. Organizations that allow ineligible people to handle petitions face fines of up to $50,000 per violation.
Before a citizen amendment can reach voters, organizers must also clear Florida’s existing baseline: Supreme Court approval of the amendment summary, 880,062 valid signatures from at least half of the state’s 28 congressional districts, and 60% voter approval to pass.
Republicans who backed the law said it targeted documented fraud in the 2024 petition-gathering cycle. Democrats called it an intentional shutdown of direct democracy. The bill passed along party lines.
House Minority Leader Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the outcome was predictable. The law, she said, “put excessive civil and criminal liabilities onto petition gatherers, making it all but impossible to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot, exactly what we said would happen.”
Four organizations challenged HB 1205 in federal court. A judge upheld the law in April 2026, finding the plaintiffs raised policy objections rather than constitutional violations. Litigation is ongoing.
The tension between restricting citizen ballot access and calling for voters to decide major policy questions came into sharp focus during the June 2026 special session. While no citizen group had cleared the bar set by HB 1205, the Legislature voted to send its own property tax measure directly to voters in November, bypassing the signature and court review requirements that apply to citizen initiatives.
During Senate floor debate on the property tax measure, Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, drew the contrast plainly.
“We did something a couple years ago where we made it harder for citizens to put an initiative on the ballot,” Berman said. “And you know what? In 2026, there is not one citizens’ initiative right now because we made it so hard. So if we trust the voters, why did we make it so hard to get a citizens’ initiative on the ballot?” — Senator Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton
Note: The Citrus Tea confirmed this quote from a recording of the floor session. The full remarks are viewable at thefloridachannel.org.
Sources: Florida Senate Bill Summary, HB 1205, Chapter 2025-21, flsenate.gov; Florida Politics, “State Department announces no citizen initiatives made 2026 ballot,” Feb. 2, 2026; Florida Phoenix, “Federal judge upholds Florida’s citizen initiative restrictions,” April 30, 2026; Sen. Lori Berman, floor remarks, CS/SJR 2F, Florida Senate special session, June 2026, recorded by The Citrus Tea; Common Cause Florida, “Explainer: How Does HB 1205 Impact Citizen-led Amendments in Florida?”
