TALLAHASSEE \u2014 The political committee behind a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational marijuana will not appeal a judge\u2019s decision upholding state election officials\u2019 invalidation of 200,000 petition signatures.<\/p>\n
In a court document filed Tuesday, lawyers for the Smart & Safe Florida committee said they were waiving the right to appeal \u201cto provide finality to this matter and certainty to the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee faces a Feb. 1 deadline to submit 880,062 verified signatures to get the proposed constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot.<\/p>\n
The state Division of Elections website on Tuesday showed the committee had submitted 675,307 valid signatures.<\/p>\n
That tally, however, might not reflect the actual number of valid signatures.<\/p>\n
A representative of Smart & Safe Florida said the committee has submitted roughly 1,010,000 signatures<\/a> to elections officials across the state \u2014 not including the 200,000 petitions that were targeted to be scrapped.<\/p>\n Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper\u2019s decision Friday came in a lawsuit<\/a> filed by Smart & Safe Florida challenging an Oct. 3 directive by state Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews requiring supervisors to scrap petitions that did not include the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment. The committee mailed the petitions to voters, and the state alleged signatures<\/a> were \u201cnot obtained legally.\u201d<\/p>\n State elections officials also argued the flagged petitions needed to be invalidated because Smart & Safe Florida made changes to the format of the petition form approved by Secretary of State Cord Byrd\u2019s office. The state alleged the format was changed without permission in violation of Florida law.<\/p>\n The front of the disputed form was identical to the petition that was approved, which had a blank back page. The back of the forms deemed to be invalid by Matthews included a link to Smart & Safe Florida\u2019s website, where the full text of the proposed amendment can be found.<\/p>\n Byrd\u2019s office sent a cease-and-desist letter to the committee about the disputed petitions in March.<\/p>\n A new law that went into effect in July requires that the full text of the amendment be included on the petition.<\/p>\n The new law also required county supervisors of elections to stop processing petition signatures for a 90-day period, which ended Sept. 30 \u2014 days before Matthews\u2019 missive.<\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024 led efforts to defeat a proposed recreational-marijuana amendment<\/a> sponsored by Smart & Safe Florida. With the committee taking another run at the issue in 2026, it has clashed with Byrd on a number of fronts.<\/p>\n