Last-Minute Voter Verification Changes In Florida Threaten Cannabis Campaign’s 2026 Bid

Last week, an official with the Florida Secretary of State’s Office issued new directives to the county supervisors of elections that complicate the state’s voter verification process and could disrupt a bid to put an adult-use cannabis legalization question on the 2026 ballot, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The order came from Maria Matthews, director of the state Division of Elections, but the Secretary of State is a governor-appointed role, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has long opposed adult-use cannabis reforms in the Sunshine State.

The Smart & Safe Florida campaign needs to submit just over 880,000 valid voter signatures before February 1 to qualify for November ballots.

The campaign has already accused the state of dragging out the approval process — last year, advocates claimed that officials were purposefully delaying approving the petition to make the signature-gathering process more difficult.

Additionally, state officials disqualified over 200,000 signatures last year, saying they were invalid because voters had not been provided with the full text of the constitutional amendment.

If the question does ultimately make it onto the ballots, as a constitutional amendment, it will require at least 60% of voter support to pass. In 2024, a cannabis legalization amendment received jus 56% of the vote and failed.