The path to legalizing recreational marijuana in Florida just hit another roadblock. In a announcement this past weekend, the Florida Department of State declared that none of the 22 active proposed constitutional amendments submitted by initiative petitions had met the necessary requirements to appear on the 2026 General Election ballot.
This announcement includes the highly anticipated initiative from Smart & Safe Florida, the group spearheading the effort to bring recreational marijuana to Florida. While state officials point to missed deadlines and insufficient verified signatures, organizers behind the marijuana amendment are pushing back, calling the state’s declaration “premature” and insisting the fight isn’t over.
Department of State’s Announcement
On Sunday, February 1, 2026, the Florida Department of State issued a brief “Note to Press” via social media and its website. The statement was direct: “All twenty-two active proposed constitutional amendments by initiative petitions failed to meet the requirements of Florida law for placement on the 2026 General Election ballot.”
The deadline for initiative campaigns to submit the required number of verified signatures was 5:00 p.m. on that Sunday. According to the state’s official tally at the time of the announcement, the Smart & Safe Florida campaign had 783,592 valid signatures on file.
To qualify for the ballot, an initiative must secure 880,062 verified signatures—meaning the campaign appeared to fall short by nearly 100,000 signatures based on the state’s dashboard.
This shortfall wasn’t unique to the marijuana initiative. Other campaigns, including efforts to expand Medicaid and establish a right to clean water, also failed to meet the threshold. However, the recreational marijuana initiative was the closest contender and the most high-profile failure among the group.
Why Florida Says the Recreational Marijuana Initiative Failed to Make Ballot
The primary reason cited for the disqualification is the failure to reach the verification threshold by the statutory deadline. Getting a citizen-led initiative on the Florida ballot is notoriously difficult, requiring signatures equal to 8% of the votes cast in the last presidential election, distributed across at least half of the state’s congressional districts.
The process has become even tougher following the passage of HB 1205, a law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis that took effect in July 2025. This legislation introduced stricter rules for petition gatherers, including requirements for registration, training, and tighter timelines for submitting forms.
Beyond the logistical hurdles, the state actively disqualified a significant number of signatures leading up to the deadline. Reports indicate that approximately 200,000 petitions were invalidated because they did not include the full text of the amendment. Another 43,000 were discarded because they were signed by “inactive” voters—people who are registered but haven’t voted recently—and roughly 34,000 were thrown out due to issues regarding out-of-state petition gatherers.
State officials have also raised concerns about fraud. Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the arrest of a petition gatherer in late January on charges of identity theft and submitting fraudulent voter information, signaling the state’s aggressive stance on verifying the legitimacy of every signature.
Smart & Safe Florida Calls the Announcement “Premature”
Despite the Department of State’s definitive statement, Smart & Safe Florida is not conceding defeat. A spokesperson for the campaign released a statement challenging the accuracy of the current counts, arguing that the Secretary of State spoke too soon.
“We believe the declaration by the Secretary of State is premature, as the final and complete county-by-county totals for validated petitions are not yet reported,” the spokesperson stated via Florida Politics. The group claims to have submitted over 1.4 million signatures in total and expresses confidence that once every valid petition is processed, they will exceed the 880,062 threshold required to make the ballot.
The campaign’s argument hinges on the backlog of processing at county election offices. Supervisors of Elections were working through the weekend to verify petitions up until the 5:00 p.m. deadline. Smart & Safe Florida argues that the state’s online database fails to keep up with the work happening on the ground and has not yet included the final tallies from all 67 counties.
Furthermore, the state’s official website currently includes a disclaimer noting that totals do not reflect the Secretary’s final determination and that supervisors are correcting records pursuant to ongoing litigation. This suggests that the numbers could shift as legal challenges regarding disqualified signatures—specifically those from inactive voters and out-of-state gatherers—continue to play out in court.
What Happens Next For Florida Recreational Marijuana Push?
Legal battles between Smart & Safe Florida and the state government will likely intensify. The campaign previously sued over invalidated signatures and procedural delays. Since the state has officially closed the 2026 ballot, the initiative may now find its only remaining path through the court system.
If the disqualification stands, it marks a significant victory for Governor DeSantis and state Republican leaders who have opposed the legalization measure. It would mean Florida voters will not have the opportunity to decide on recreational marijuana in 2026, pushing any potential legalization efforts to the 2028 election cycle at the earliest.
However, if Smart & Safe Florida can prove they submitted enough valid signatures to county officials before the deadline—or if a court rules the state improperly invalidated specific petition batches—they could still resurrect the amendment. For now, the future of recreational cannabis in Florida remains in limbo, trapped between a hard deadline and a mountain of uncounted paperwork.
