Process Available

Initiative

Popular Referendum

 Legislative Referendum

Elections Division

Initiative Historical Listing

Basic Steps to Undertake an Initiative Campaign

I&R Constitutional and Statutory Provisions

Additional Information

Secretary of State's Initiative and Referendum Historical Information

Florida's best-known initiative and referendum backer of the Progressive Era was retired U.S. Senator Wilkinson Call. The closest the Florida legislature came to approving statewide I&R was the state senate's passage, in 1912, of a version so restrictive that it would have made it virtually impossible to put an initiative on the ballot. The senate quickly rescinded even this weak bill.

In the late 1960s, following the transformation of Florida from a southern state to a sunbelt state populated largely by transplanted northerners, the legislature passed an amendment authorizing initiative constitutional amendments only - not initiatives or referendums on statutes. The new provision was successfully employed for the first time in 1976, when Governor Reuben Askew sponsored an initiative requiring public disclosure of campaign contributions. After this measure passed, infuriated state legislators passed bills banning the collection of signatures at polling places and imposing a 10-cent-per-signature "verification fee" to further discourage future initiative proponents.

In 1992 Floridians passed term limits for the state legislature and in 2000 environmentalist won a major victory with the passage of an initiative that established a statewide high-speed monorail system. However, since the adoption of the statewide initiative process, only 16 initiatives have made it on statewide ballots. This is due primarily to the high rate of initiatives that are invalidated because they violate the state’s outrageously stringent single subject provision for initiatives. It has become almost impossible to get the proper clearance from the state supreme court necessary to place an initiative on the ballot.

This state history is based on research found in David Schmidt's book, Citizen Lawmakers: The Ballot Initiative Revolution.