October 27, 2008

ISSUE 1242

Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) issued a statement claiming it has passed the thresholds necessary to be qualified for the 2010 state ballot. FHD needed to obtain 611,009 verified signatures statewide, representing eight percent of registered voters voting in the last presidential election in at least 13 of 25 congressional districts in the state to make the ballot in this upcoming election. As of Oct. 18, it has at least 611,753 verified signatures on file out of a total of 850,000 or more in the required 13 congressional districts.

“But the Florida Constitution requires the eight percent of the voter turnout be in the past presidential election”, said Butch Calhoun, FFVA’s director of Governmental Affairs. “To be on the ballot in 2010, Hometown Democracy will need eight percent of the voters who vote in this election, so with an expected record voter turnout in this year’s election, the required number of signatures would be higher in 2010. Also, signatures are only good for four years and 25-to-30 percent of the signatures that FHD has on the books will be invalid by 2010. This means it still has a long way to go to make the ballot in 2010,” said Calhoun.

The FHD Amendment would, if passed, require that every city and county government that wants to propose changes to their local Comprehensive Land Use Plan first submit those proposed changes to the voters in that community for approval.