The Florida Supreme Court is now considering whether it will hear a case that would bring Smart & Safe Florida’s 2026 petition to legalize adult-use cannabis back to life.
Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal sent Smart & Safe Florida’s notice to invoke discretionary jurisdiction/notice of appeal to the state’s Supreme Court on Feb. 16, initiating the process for the higher court to potentially entertain the case.
The lawsuit stems from Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd directing 67 county supervisors of elections to invalidate 28,752 of the legalization campaign’s signatures that were collected by non-U.S. citizens or non-Florida residents and another 41,894 petitions that were signed by “inactive” voters.
Overall, 70,646 valid signatures are on the line after the 1st District dealt Byrd a victory on Jan. 23, when a three-judge panel for the appellate court ruled that the secretary of state’s directives were lawful.
Specifically, the three-judge panel reversed Leon County Circuit Judge Jonathan E. Sjostrom’s ruling that the state’s attempt to invalidate the 41,894 petitions signed by inactive voters was unlawful. Both courts agreed that the other 28,752 petitions should be invalidated.
Two days after the appellate ruling, Smart & Safe Florida’s general counsel, Glenn Burhans Jr., filed an emergency motion, asking the 1st District to rehear the case with all 12 of the court’s judges.
“With less than six weeks to go in the initiative petition gathering and verification process for placement on the 2026 General Election ballot, the secretary of state contravened decades of Florida statutes and how the Division of Elections and all county supervisors interpreted and applied the law governing the treatment of ‘inactive’ voters,” Burhans wrote in the emergency motion. “That sea-change was not based on any change in law, such as a new statutory enactment or court decision. Rather, it was a legally unsupported dictate imposed upon an entire class of independently elected constitutional officers.”
The 41,894 “inactive” voters that signed Smart & Safe Florida’s petition could simply show up at the polls on Election Day, show their driver’s licenses and vote for the initiative, Burhans argued. The 1st District did not dispute that.
But with Smart & Safe Florida approaching a 30-day deadline to file its notice to invoke discretionary jurisdiction, Burhans withdrew the emergency motion for the rehearing in the 1st District and is now hoping the Supreme Court will take up the case.
Burhans and his legal team at Stearns Weaver Miller did not immediately respond to a Cannabis Business Times inquiry for this article.
What’s at Stake?
The notice to invoke discretionary jurisdiction to the Supreme Court comes after Byrd’s office announced on Feb. 1 that all 22 of Florida’s proposed constitutional amendments by initiative petitions failed to gather enough valid signatures by that day’s deadline.
According to the Florida Division of Elections’ website, Smart & Safe Florida’s 2026 adult-use legalization campaign came 96,460 signatures short of the required 880,062 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
While the 70,646 signatures in the lawsuit alone wouldn’t overcome this shortfall, a recent CBT analysis of the 67 county supervisors of elections’ websites uncovered that the state missed counting more than 54,000 signatures that local election officials validated.
RELATED: Florida Officials Miss Counting 54,000+ Signatures for Cannabis Legalization Petition
The missed signatures primarily included 16,044 from Broward County, 12,165 from Seminole County and 11,083 from Pinellas County. Overall, the state underreported signature tallies from 30-plus counties.
County election officials from Broward, Seminole and Pinellas told CBT that the signature tallies on their websites were final, and they could not explain the discrepancies on the state’s website.
“Regarding the discrepancy between our numbers and what the Division of Elections is reporting, you would need to contact them directly, as we cannot speak to their processes and/or website content,” Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Communications Director Ashley McKnight-Taylor said.
While the Division of Elections’ website states that the statewide signature tally does “not reflect the secretary’s determination of the total number of verified valid signatures,” there’s no statute forcing the state’s hand to update the tally beyond what’s currently listed.
Smart & Safe Florida won a separate lawsuit last month, forcing Byrd and Florida Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews to update the website’s figures after nearly two months of inactivity, but the judge who decided the case ruled that the state was only obligated to update its figures once more for the Feb. 1 deadline.
But with the widespread discrepancies between the state and county supervisors, another lawsuit could be brewing.
