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Solidifying GOP Control, Florida Cracks Down on Citizen Petitions

The bill, which takes effect before the 2020 election, makes it drastically harder to collect enough signatures to make it onto voters’ ballots.

By Lawrence Mower

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday approved legislation that would crack down on citizen petitions, a move that is likely to quash future ballot initiatives disliked by Republican lawmakers and corporate donors.

The bill, which takes effect before the 2020 election, makes it drastically harder to collect enough signatures to make it onto voters’ ballots.

And it will solidify Republican control in Tallahassee by eliminating one of the last threats to their power: the ballot box.

Orlando attorney John Morgan, who is trying to get an amendment on next year’s ballot to raise the state’s minimum wage, blasted state lawmakers.

“I know these people, and they’re basically run and owned by lobbyists,” Morgan said Friday. “And the constitutional amendment takes the power away from the lobbyists and gives it to the people, and they don’t want that.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

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