RPOF Applauds Federal District Court’s Rejection of Special Interest Groups’ Challenges to HB 1205’s Election Integrity Reforms to Florida’s Citizen Initiative Constitutional Amendment Process

The Republican Party of Florida (“RPOF”) applauds the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida’s ruling on April 30, 2026, which held that HB 1205’s Election Integrity Reforms to Florida’s Citizen Initiative Constitutional Amendment Process were constitutional. RPOF intervened in the litigation and supported the Florida Secretary of State and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in defending the law. Yesterday’s ruling solidifies Florida’s right to safeguard the citizen initiative process and to prevent election fraud before it happens and ensures that Florida will continue to be the nation’s “gold standard” for election integrity and election administration.

The Florida Legislature enacted HB 1205 during the 2025 Legislative Session, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed it into law on May 2, 2025, in an effort to add important election integrity reforms to Florida’s citizen’s initiative constitutional amendment process. Subsequently, multiple special interest groups filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new law. RPOF intervened in this litigation to support the State actors in defending this important election integrity law.

A two-week trial on the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims was held in February 2026. The Northern District of Florida rejected all of Plaintiffs’ challenges, including their attempts to weaken Florida’s petition circulator eligibility requirements and the circulation registration process. The Court also rejected Plaintiffs’ attempts to force Florida taxpayers to cover the costs of processing these special interest ballot sponsors’ signed petitions and their attempts to avoid responsibility through civil fines for failing to timely deliver petitions signed by voters to the appropriate county Supervisor of Elections.

RPOF’s Chairman Evan Power said, “The ability to amend our Constitution should not be compromised by fraudsters. We are glad the Court recognized that Florida has a constitutional right to stop fraud, ensure that petition signatures are valid and authentic, and provide increased transparency to voters. By rejecting Plaintiffs’ baseless claims, the District Court has prevented these special interest groups from hijacking our Constitution for their own self-interests to the detriment of Floridians.”

HB 1205, passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis on May 2, 2025, adds election integrity reforms to the citizen initiative process to amend Florida’s Constitution:

• Requires paid and volunteer petition circulators to be registered with the State;
• Requires petition circulators to be U.S. Citizens and Florida residents;
• Prohibits convicted felons from being petition circulators unless their right to vote has been restored;
• Prohibits compensating petition circulators based on the number of signatures collected;
• Prohibits a person that has not registered as a petition circulator from possessing more than 25 signed petition forms (not including their own or immediate family members);
• Enhances petition verification procedures including collection of additional voter identification information;
• Revises deadlines when petitions must be submitted to the Supervisors of Elections;
• Increases fines and creates criminal penalties for fraudulent activities related to petition gathering;
• Requires the financial impact statement to be included on the petition form; and
• Requires voters to be notified of their verified signature and creates a signature revocation process for voters.