All Roll Calls
Yes: 169 • No: 158
FloridaHB 12052025HouseWALLET
Amendments to the State Constitution
Sponsored By: Jenna Persons-Mulicka (Republican)
Signed by Governor
AppropriationGovernment Operations SubcommitteeState Affairs CommitteeHouse CalendarAppropriations
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
12 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 8 costs, 0 mixed.
More protection against petition signature misuse
Beginning October 1, 2025, county supervisors must mail voters a notice when their initiative signature is verified. Voters can report forgery or misrepresentation; the election-crimes office must forward completed reports to the state elections division, which must invalidate the form. Supervisors must notify the election-crimes office when more than 25% of forms received in a reporting period are invalid. Collectors commit a third-degree felony by copying or keeping voter information for reasons other than giving it to the sponsor. Protected information includes driver license and state ID numbers, Social Security numbers, and signatures.
Registration limits for petition collectors
Beginning July 1, 2025, circulator rules cover paid and unpaid collectors, and existing registrations expire, requiring new applications. The definition excludes people handling no more than 25 signed forms, excluding their own and forms from a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or those relatives’ spouses. Unregistered collection, delivery, or possession of more than 25 signed forms beyond the person’s own or immediate-family forms is a third-degree felony. For that offense, immediate family includes a spouse and the person’s or spouse’s parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings. Forms submitted by ineligible or unregistered circulators cannot count toward ballot access; distributing forms for personal use remains allowed.
Sponsors face fines for mishandled petitions
Sponsors and collectors cannot give voters petition forms with the voters’ information already filled in. Sponsors face a $50 fine for each such form. A $500 fine applies to each collected form not submitted to the election supervisor in the voter’s county. That fine rises to $5,000 per form when the sponsor or its collector acts willfully. These fines target responsible sponsors or collectors, not voters who signed the forms.
Tougher penalties for petition falsification
Adding missing information to a signed ballot-access petition is a third-degree felony. The offense also covers signing another person’s name or a fictitious name on petitions for candidates, minor parties, or issues. Initiative sponsors face a $5,000 fine per petition when their collectors commit these violations to secure ballot placement. Election-law violations involving fraud or irregularities in issue petitions also count as racketeering activity.
Clearer petition information for voters
Beginning July 1, 2025, petition forms must prominently show the petition number, ballot title, and summary. Forms must warn that they become public records when received by the county election supervisor. They must also warn that knowingly signing more than once is a first-degree misdemeanor. On request, the proposed amendment and all related initiative forms must be available in an alternative format.
Private property controllers can exclude campaigners
People who lawfully control private property may exclude people campaigning for or against a proposed constitutional amendment. This applies even when private property is open to the public for business.
Voters can challenge amendment election results
Voters qualified to vote on a constitutional amendment may challenge its election result in circuit court. Challenges must cite a statutory ground, such as fraud, illegal votes, or the amendment’s ineligibility for the ballot. The Elections Canvassing Commission must be part of the case. For initiative amendments, the sponsor must also be included.
New hurdles for amendment sponsors
Each sponsor may sponsor only one constitutional amendment. Before circulating forms, sponsors must register as political committees and submit the required amendment and ballot materials. Referral to the Attorney General also requires a financial impact statement and a state letter confirming enough verified signatures. That threshold is 25% of the statewide constitutional signature requirement in half of Florida’s congressional districts.
Sponsors face updated signature checking costs
County election supervisors must post actual petition-checking costs, and the state must publish each county’s current cost. Costs include signature checks, staff, voter notices, printing, postage, and sending forms to the state. Supervisors may raise posted costs each March 1. The law also authorizes an increase no later than October 1, 2025, with the resulting cost posted online. Sponsors paying verification costs face these charges, but the law sets no single statewide dollar amount.
Sponsors must renew petition confirmation
Initiative sponsors must obtain the required state confirmation letter at least every third election cycle. Without it, their petition signatures expire and their political committee is disbanded. For amendments submitted before February 1, 2022, the deadline is February 1, 2026. Sponsors of those older amendments may file again as a new petition.
State-funded amendment messages face new limits
Florida and people acting for the state cannot use state public funds for voter communications about amendments or revisions up for a vote. People and groups also cannot accept those funds for such messages. Exceptions cover specified accurate, fair, and impartial reports and factual information, including legally authorized or required information. Elected state officials may still express opinions, and the law does not ban privately funded messages.
Stricter checks for petition signatures
Beginning July 1, 2025, forms need an original signature, accurate signing date, full name, address, and county. They also need a voter registration number or birth date, plus a Florida driver license or ID number or the last four Social Security digits. Signers must be qualified, registered Florida voters when signing and when checked; signatures must be legally collected, including proper paid-circulator registration. The law paused verification from July 1 through September 30, 2025. That pause did not extend delivery deadlines or excuse late-submission fines.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Jenna Persons-Mulicka
Republican • House
Cosponsors
State Affairs Committee
Affiliation unavailable
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 5/2/2025
Senate Floor Vote
Yes: 28 • No: 9
House vote • 5/1/2025
House Floor Vote
Yes: 27 • No: 82
Senate vote • 5/1/2025
Senate Floor Vote
Yes: 28 • No: 10
Senate vote • 4/30/2025
Senate Floor Vote
Yes: 10 • No: 26
House vote • 4/3/2025
House Floor Vote
Yes: 76 • No: 31
Actions Timeline
Chapter No. 2025-21
5/5/2025Approved by Governor
5/2/2025Signed by Officers and presented to Governor
5/2/2025Ordered engrossed, then enrolled
5/2/2025HouseIn Messages
5/2/2025HouseCS passed as amended; YEAS 28 NAYS 9 -SJ 1132
5/2/2025SenateConcurred in House amendment(s) to Senate amendment(s) (258567) -SJ 1132
5/2/2025SenateIn returning messages
5/1/2025SenateCS passed as amended; YEAS 81, NAYS 30
5/1/2025HouseConcurred in Senate amendment 476344 as amended
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 438593 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 887783 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 247543 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 477913 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 988109 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 908689 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 315985 Failed
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 258567 adopted
5/1/2025HouseAmendment 376289 Failed
5/1/2025HouseSenate Message List
5/1/2025HouseIn Messages
5/1/2025HouseCS passed as amended; YEAS 28 NAYS 10 -SJ 1058
5/1/2025SenateRead 3rd time -SJ 1058
5/1/2025SenatePlaced on 3rd reading
4/30/2025SenateAmendment(s) adopted (476344) -SJ 735
4/30/2025Senate
Bill Text
er
5/5/2025
e2
5/2/2025
e1
4/3/2025
c1
3/27/2025
Filed
2/26/2025