Pamela,
Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature want to make it nearly impossible for everyday Floridians to amend our state constitution through citizen-led amendments.
For decades, Floridians have used citizen-led constitutional amendments to make real change when politicians refused to act—raising the minimum wage, protecting our environment, restoring voting rights to returning citizens, and more.
But now, legislation is moving quickly through the Florida House and Senate that would create massive new barriers to getting issues on the ballot— restricting petition collection and imposing costly requirements that shut out grassroots movements.
These attacks on the citizen-led amendment process are a cynical ploy to rewrite the rules to keep power in the hands of out-of-touch politicians and their corporate elite donors rather than letting the people have a say through their vote.
This legislation already passed its first committee last week. It will next be heard in the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee and the House State Affairs Committee.
Take Action: Tell lawmakers to reject these attacks on citizen-led amendments.
Even voters within his own party oppose DeSantis' and his allies' attack on citizen-led amendments: a newly released survey of Florida Republicans found that strong majorities opposed these efforts to restrict petition collection. In fact,
72% of Florida Republicans support citizen-led amendments, while only 14% oppose them.Instead of making it easier to access democracy and government, lawmakers are working to make it harder—rigging the rules to benefit the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyday Floridians.
We need to act fast. The Senate bill will be heard in committee TODAY and the House bill may be heard again as early as Thursday. If we don't stop them, we could lose one of the most powerful tools we have to hold our government accountable.
Take 60 seconds to tell the committee members: Protect citizen-led amendments!
Direct democracy is how we hold leaders accountable and bring change to our communities. This process has been part of Florida's history for decades, empowering Floridians to act when politicians won't. We can't let them take that away.
Don't let them shut us out. Write to the lawmakers today.
Thank you for standing up for our democracy,
Amy Keith, Executive Director
and the team at Common Cause Florida
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