HB1205 prevents non-U.S. citizens and non-Florida residents from registering as petition circulators, directs supervisors of elections to notify voters whose signatures are verified, and forbids the use of public funds to advocate for or against any issue.
The Senate passed HB1205 on May 2, 2025, by a vote of 28 to 9. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the initiative power in Article XI of the Florida Constitution needs to be repealed. “Citizens’ initiatives” are illegitimate populist loopholes that relegate the solemn lawmaking duties of the Legislature to the will of the masses, replacing the checks and balances of representative government with chaos and instability. They are an insufficient safeguard for protecting the rights and liberties of Floridians—in every part of the state—from the “dangers of democracy” or “tyranny of the majority.” Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees to Florida “a Republican Form of Government,” which means government limited to the “rule of law,” as opposed to the unbridled whims of “majority rule.”
