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Court sides with Florida in tossing 70,000 ballot petition signatures
TALLAHASSEE — Dealing a blow to supporters of a proposed recreational marijuana constitutional amendment, an appeals court has rejected a challenge to directives by Secretary of State Cord Byrd to invalidate more than 70,000 petition signatures.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal on Friday issued a 10-page opinion that sided with Byrd in a lawsuit filed by the Smart & Safe Florida political committee, which is trying to submit enough petition signatures by a Feb. 1 deadline to put the pot proposal on the November ballot.
Smart & Safe Florida filed a lawsuit last month in Leon County circuit court challenging two directives by Byrd’s office to county supervisors of elections. One directed invalidation of 41,894 signatures of what are known as “inactive” voters; the other directed invalidation of 28,752 signatures collected by petition gatherers who were not Florida residents, according to the appeals court opinion.
Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom ruled that the petitions signed by inactive voters should not be invalidated but upheld the state’s decision on invalidating petitions collected by non-residents. Smart & Safe Florida and Byrd’s office both appealed to the Tallahassee-based appeals court.
The panel’s opinion overturned Sjostrom’s ruling on the inactive voters and upheld his ruling on the petitions gathered by non-residents — with the net effect of allowing both directives to invalidate signatures.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal on Friday issued a 10-page opinion that sided with Byrd in a lawsuit filed by the Smart & Safe Florida political committee, which is trying to submit enough petition signatures by a Feb. 1 deadline to put the pot proposal on the November ballot.
Smart & Safe Florida filed a lawsuit last month in Leon County circuit court challenging two directives by Byrd’s office to county supervisors of elections. One directed invalidation of 41,894 signatures of what are known as “inactive” voters; the other directed invalidation of 28,752 signatures collected by petition gatherers who were not Florida residents, according to the appeals court opinion.
Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom ruled that the petitions signed by inactive voters should not be invalidated but upheld the state’s decision on invalidating petitions collected by non-residents. Smart & Safe Florida and Byrd’s office both appealed to the Tallahassee-based appeals court.
The panel’s opinion overturned Sjostrom’s ruling on the inactive voters and upheld his ruling on the petitions gathered by non-residents — with the net effect of allowing both directives to invalidate signatures.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2026/01/26/ballot-petition-signatures-invalid-recreational-marijuana-pot-2026/