TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For years, Floridians have used the ballot initiative process to pass popular measures that have been otherwise stymied by the state’s political leaders.

That process is how Florida got its $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana and felon voter rights restoration. It’s the reason why Florida’s governor and lawmakers have term limits.

But new proposals from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office could make it nearly impossible for the state’s residents to amend their constitution.

The governor’s office sent several proposals to Florida’s legislative staff earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for the Florida Senate.

Among the ideas shared was a plan to overhaul how amendment sponsors can collect petitions to get initiatives on the ballot. No longer would groups be able to use third-party organizations to collect signatures from passersby outside grocery stores or the tax collector’s office.

Instead, DeSantis’ office proposed that people could only complete a petition in person at an elections office, or by requesting a petition in a process similar to vote-by-mail.

“The way that they have it written, that would functionally eliminate citizen initiatives from the state of Florida,” said Ben Pollara, who ran the successful 2016 constitutional amendment campaign for medical marijuana.

Other ideas on the governor’s list include requiring the attorney general to put a “disclosure” on the ballot about the legal effects of the amendment and creating more pathways to boot a petition off the ballot.

The proposals DeSantis’ office shared with legislative staff are more detailed than what he has floated publicly ahead of the Jan. 27 special session. It’s unclear whether legislative leadership supports DeSantis’ ideas. The governor’s website also has a link to a draft bill that includes these ideas.

The House Speaker and Senate President have said that changes to the petition process are complex and better suited for the regular session, which starts in March.

DeSantis has cited fraud as the reason he wants to reform the initiative process, but he has also criticized Florida’s ballot initiative as a path for special interests, saying that “our constitution should not be for sale to the highest bidder.”

Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, the executive director of the left-leaning Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, said DeSantis’ proposals follow the pattern of states attempting to restrict the petition process, especially in light of many winning abortion protection measures.

Other states are already looking to Florida’s process after seeing its abortion amendment defeated because of the 60% required threshold, Figueredo said. If Florida were to pass more changes, other states could look to duplicate it.

“I think what he’s proposing really clearly has nothing to do with making the process more secure,” Figueredo said. “It is ultimately a power grab.”

The ideas from DeSantis’ office would essentially prohibit any organized signature collection. Under the suggested change, it would be a third-degree felony for someone to collect more than two signed petition forms for the same initiative besides their own and a family member’s, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Florida is one of 24 states that allow citizens to amend their laws or constitution, and in Florida, the right to amend the constitution is guaranteed in that very document. Lawmakers have already made the process more difficult and more expensive in recent years.

None of the other ideas floated by the governor’s office matter if the change to signature collection passes, Pollara said.

If that change goes through, outside of amendments put on the ballot by the Legislature, “we ain’t voting on ballot amendments,” Pollara said.

Last year, DeSantis leaned heavily on state power to combat two amendments put on the ballot through the petition process. Amendment 3 would have allowed for recreational marijuana use, and Amendment 4 would have protected abortion access — both ideas that DeSantis opposes. Both amendments failed.

Some of the ideas on the governor’s list seem specifically targeted at any future attempt to relaunch an abortion protection initiative.

One of the proposals says that the Florida Supreme Court would be required to evaluate a petition for compliance with Article 1, Section 2 of the constitution, which deals with Floridians’ rights to life, liberty and happiness.

During arguments over whether Amendment 4 should be allowed on the ballot, some Florida justices raised the question of whether unborn children are covered in that constitutional guarantee.

Michelle Morton, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida, said the proposal seemed like an attempt by the governor to put up another possible barrier to any future abortion amendment. The ACLU of Florida campaigned for Amendment 4.

“It’s unfortunate that when the governor saw that so many people want to repeal these bans, this is the reaction,” Morton said. “To create another avenue to try and fight any future amendments in that area.”

Morton noted that Florida’s court has in the past upheld the ballot initiative process as a protected right for citizens.

The proposals out of DeSantis’ office would allow a private citizen to challenge an amendment’s standing and would also allow the secretary of state to decertify an amendment if they determine it didn’t get enough signatures.

If that were law last year, it could have affected the abortion amendment. That’s because, less than a month before Election Day last year, the DeSantis administration put out an unprecedented report asserting that an estimated 16% of the amendment’s petitions should not have been validated due to “widespread petition fraud.”

The state’s report, which included sweeping generalizations about the petition drive without providing data to back them up, was based on a review of about 13,000 validated petitions out of the campaign’s nearly one million approved signatures.

Florida’s report accusing the abortion amendment of fraud came months after the state had already certified it to appear on the ballot, and months after the deadline to challenge it had passed.

Another idea from the governor’s office is to have the attorney general create more language to appear on the ballot describing the “material legal effects” of the amendment.

Morton with the ACLU said adding more would make the ballot all the more complicated. When reasonable voters can’t decipher what they’re looking at, they choose not to vote or vote no, Morton said.

She thinks part of the governor’s plan is “making these amendments look so scary that people won’t vote for them.”

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