Florida state officials are once more meddling with free and honest elections in a zealous quest to cease adult-use marijuana legalization.
That’s based on a lawsuit filed final week by Smart & Safe Florida, a marijuana multistate operator-backed legalization marketing campaign, that accuses officials 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 Cannabis, Smart & Safe Florida should accumulate by Feb. 1 roughly 880,000 legitimate signatures from registered voters to qualify a constitutional modification that may legalize adult-use hashish for adults and 21 and older.
But as Politico first reported, the state Division of Elections earlier this month instructed county elections officials to invalidate as much as 200,000 signatures already submitted over a technicality.
As the state Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) first alleged in March, Smart & Safe Florida campaigners didn’t present the complete textual content of the modification to voters earlier than acquiring their signatures.
In its swimsuit, Smart & Safe 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,” based on Politico.
Trulieve spent roughly $150 million on an adult-use legalization effort that did not win the required 60% help in 2024 regardless of an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
But that was after DeSantis officials challenged the marketing campaign in courtroom – and, based on two state lawmakers, used state assets to sway voters to oppose the effort.
DeSantis, a failed Republican presidential candidate, made campaigning towards legalization a pet situation.
Separately, based on Politico, a state grand jury is investigating DeSantis officials and different Florida Republicans and whether or not $10 million in state funds made its option to an anti-legalization marketing campaign.