Appeals court upholds Florida law barring noncitizens from gathering voter petitions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Provisions of a Florida law restricting the state’s process for getting citizens’ initiatives on the ballot can go into effect, a federal appeals court has decided. The decision issued Tuesday overrules a lower court’s order that blocked portions of the law from being enforced while the legal challenge brought by grassroots campaigners plays out.

Known as H.B. 1205, the law sets new limits on how many petitions Florida voters can collect in their effort to get a constitutional amendment on the state’s ballot, a provision punishable by a felony if voters violate it. The measure also bars non-U.S. citizens and non-Florida residents from gathering signed petitions for ballot initiatives.

The citizenship and residency provisions had been blocked under a July 8 ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has overturned that, siding with arguments made by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ administration that the restrictions are needed to reform a constitutional amendment process that lawmakers claim has been tainted by fraud.

Attorneys for the voter advocacy groups and campaigns for Medicaid expansion and recreational marijuana that brought the lawsuit have argued the measure unconstitutionally hamstrings citizens’ abilities to amend Florida’s constitution, arguments the appeals court rejected in a 2-1 decision.

“The State has made a strong showing that H.B. 1205’s residency and citizenship requirements likely do not violate the First Amendment, since Florida’s substantial interest in preventing and investigating instances of voter fraud ‘would be achieved less effectively’ without them,” Eleventh Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote in an opinion joined by Judge Elizabeth Branch. Judge Nancy Abudu dissented.

“Absent a stay of the preliminary injunction, Florida would be left unable to enforce H.B. 1205’s rules governing the collection of initiative petitions until this appeal is resolved on the merits—rules that were legitimately ‘enacted by representatives of its people’ and that are substantially likely to be upheld as constitutional,” the opinion continued.

Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature pushed the changes months after a majority of Florida voters supported ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights and legalize recreational marijuana, though the measures fell short of the 60% needed to pass.

In her dissent, Abudu disagreed with what she described as a pattern of the court “disingenuously parsing Supreme Court precedent to accommodate a State’s unconstitutional legislative whims.”

“Florida, never one to run out of ideas on how to restrict access to the ballot box and voter engagement, has crafted yet another scheme to limit the ability of their constituent opponents to express their beliefs and to challenge the status quo,” Abudu wrote.

Nearly 150 bills were introduced across 15 state legislatures this year seeking to make it harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot or win approval by voters — nearly double the amount of just two years ago, according to the Fairness Project, a progressive group that has backed dozens of ballot initiatives in states. Voting rights advocates say the trend betrays the promise of direct democracy.

Under Florida’s law, an individual could be charged with a felony if they collect petition forms from more than 25 individual voters – other than theirs or those of their immediate family — unless they are registered with the state as a petition circulator.

The law signed by DeSantis in May also gives campaigns just 10 days instead of the previous 30 to return signed petition forms to local elections officials. Petitioners could also face stiff fines if they don’t return the petitions on time or send them to the wrong county.

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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.