The political committee backing a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida filed suit against Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley, accusing the state of unlawfully invalidating hundreds of thousands of verified voter petitions.
In complaint filed on Oct. 14 in the Leon County Circuit Court, Smart & Safe Florida seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to block a directive issued by Byrd’s office earlier this month that instructed all 67 county supervisors to retroactively invalidate petitions associated with the group’s “Adult Personal Use of Marijuana” initiative.
The order, sent through the Division of Elections on Oct. 3, directed supervisors to mark as invalid roughly 200,000 signatures that had already been verified under state law.
Smart & Safe Florida argues that Byrd exceeded his statutory authority by imposing new verification criteria not contemplated by the Legislature. The dispute centers on whether sponsors must “provide or display” the full text of a proposed amendment to voters before they sign a petition, a requirement the committee says does not appear anywhere in statute.
According to the filing, Smart & Safe mailed petitions to voters earlier this year with a printed notice directing them to view the full text of the proposed amendment on the committee’s website. Byrd’s office later concluded the mailings used an “unapproved” version of the petition form because the full text was not printed or displayed directly with the petition and because the reverse side contained additional language.
The complaint contends that the Secretary of State lacks legal authority to invalidate petitions that meet the criteria set forth in Florida Statutes, which assigns signature verification duties to county supervisors, not the state.
Smart & Safe warns the directive threatens to derail its effort to qualify the amendment for the 2026 general election ballot ahead of the constitutional Feb. 1 filing deadline.
The group asks the court to declare the directive unlawful, order reinstatement of any petitions marked invalid, and require the Secretary of State to issue a corrective notice to all supervisors of elections.
