Florida state officers are once more meddling with free and honest elections in a zealous quest to cease adult-use marijuana legalization.
That’s in keeping with a lawsuit filed final week by Sensible & Protected Florida, a marijuana multistate operator-backed legalization marketing campaign, that accuses officers in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration of unlawfully thwarting efforts to place hashish on the 2026 poll.
Bankrolled to the tune of $26 million and counting by Tallahassee-based Trulieve Hashish, Sensible & Protected Florida should gather by Feb. 1 roughly 880,000 legitimate signatures from registered voters to qualify a constitutional modification that might legalize adult-use hashish for adults and 21 and older.
However as Politico first reported, the state Division of Elections earlier this month instructed county elections officers to invalidate as much as 200,000 signatures already submitted over a technicality.
Because the state Workplace of Election Crimes and Safety (OECS) first alleged in March, Sensible & Protected Florida campaigners didn’t present the complete textual content of the modification to voters earlier than acquiring their signatures.
In its swimsuit, Sensible & Protected Florida referred to as the DeSantis’ administration’s actions a rare and “illegal” try to deny “the Florida voters who signed the petitions to have their voices heard,” in keeping with Politico.
Trulieve spent roughly $150 million on an adult-use legalization effort that did not win the mandatory 60% help in 2024 regardless of an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
However that was after DeSantis officers challenged the marketing campaign in court docket – and, in keeping with two state lawmakers, used state sources to sway voters to oppose the trouble.
DeSantis, a failed Republican presidential candidate, made campaigning towards legalization a pet problem.
Individually, in keeping with Politico, a state grand jury is investigating DeSantis officers and different Florida Republicans and whether or not $10 million in state funds made its approach to an anti-legalization marketing campaign.
