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Petitions pile up for 'clean' constitution proposal

The News Service of Florida
Published October 23, 2019 5:12 PM EDT
Published October 23, 2019 5:12 PM EDT
article

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A political committee seeking to make it harder to amend the Florida Constitution is quickly piling up petition signatures as it tries to reach the November 2020 ballot.

The committee Keep Our Constitution Clean had submitted 287,915 valid petition signatures as of early Wednesday afternoon, an increase of about 75,000 signatures over the past two weeks, according to the state Division of Elections website.

The committee needs to submit 766,200 valid signatures by a February deadline to be able to go before voters in 2020. Also, it needs Florida Supreme Court approval of the proposed ballot wording.

The proposal would make it harder to pass future constitutional amendments. Under it, voters would have to approve constitutional amendments twice --- instead of once --- for them to take effect.

The committee has been funded by the non-profit Keep Our Constitution Clean, Inc., which had put a total of $3.96 million into the initiative as of Sept. 30.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.