JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Governor Ron DeSantis is advocating for significant changes in how signatures are gathered for political initiatives in Florida.
The current list of the proposals that special interest groups hope to let voters decide on is lengthy. Some have been in the works for years, with the oldest effort dating back to 2014.
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One of the ballot initiatives filed this year would legalize the recreational use of marijuana; however, it still needs more than 200,000 signatures before it can even be considered for the 2026 ballot.
Sean Vickers, who said he was collecting signatures for the recreational marijuana initiative outside of a Publix in Argyle, spoke to News4JAX about his role as a petitioner.
“There’s a whole bunch of us across the nation and we get paid to do it,” Vickers said. “So we go wherever it’s needed.”
He said was collecting signatures for the organization Smart & Safe Florida, which is pushing for marijuana legalization. News4JAX has reached out to the organization and is awaiting a response.
Vickers, who is from Delaware, can legally work as a petitioner in Florida under current guidelines, but that won’t be enough if legislation proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis is successful.
The legislation would include changes like petitioners having to be Florida residents and would eliminate “third-party collection of petition forms.”
Despite that, Vickers said he favors DeSantis' proposed reforms and said there are some bad actors in the petition game.
“There’s a lot of fraudulent petitioners out there that get out of this business,” he explained. “Taking numbers out of phone books, going to high schools, asking homeless people that aren’t registered. So Ron DeSantis is doing a wonderful job weeding out to make sure the petitioners are actually respectful and know about what the issue is without misleading people.”