Florida’s Amendments Lured Legions of Voters to Polls

Shayne Seiser, a 19-year-old student from Fort Myers, found himself outside of his polling station on the Florida Atlantic University campus last Tuesday, watching the rain hit his windshield and pondering if he should cast his vote or just go eat breakfast instead. 

Seiser, who is registered as an independent, decided to vote for Democratic candidates after much contemplation, motivated by his hopes for positive change in national and international issues. Two of the main things that lured him to the polls was his support for women's reproductive rights and marijuana legalization.

“I was going to go eat breakfast, but instead I was just sitting in the parking lot for a while thinking, should I do this or not?” he said. 

In Florida, the razor-thin margins by which crucial amendments failed to pass during this election cycle have left many wondering what could have been if voter turnout had been just slightly higher. Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana, got 55% of the vote, while Amendment 4, which would have restored access to abortion through viability, garnered 57%. Both measures failed to reach 60%, the bar to pass an amendment to the Florida constitution – a higher threshold than most states. Even the referendum that asked Florida voters in 2006 to push the bar to 60% itself did not reach the required threshold at the time.

Seiser, who majors in multimedia studies at Florida Atlantic, works a variety of jobs: a warehouse position at Best Buy, driving for Uber Eats, assisting at weddings. 

“This is my first time voting,” Seiser shared, adding, “I've been undecided for a while, and I thought I had decided I wasn't going to vote. But at the last minute this morning, I felt it’s just important to do so, and hopefully, there'll be change in the country in the future.”

On Wednesday, he and thousands of other Floridians woke up to the news that the two citizen-generated amendments providing extra incentive to get out and vote this year did not pass, and not for lack of a majority of voters who supported them. 

An FAU PolCom Lab poll in mid-October revealed voter opinions on the proposed amendments had generational, partisan, and demographic divides. Younger voters (18-49) were the strongest supporters of both the marijuana and abortion amendments, with 69% favoring marijuana legalization and 62% supporting abortion access. Democrats overwhelmingly backed the measures, while Republicans showed significantly less support, and independents fell in between.

 “It's important for women to have the right to choose what they want to do,” Seiser said. “I mean, no one should be able to tell them whatever they want just because they're in a role of power in the government.”

It wasn’t just Democrats and independents who woke up feeling disappointed. Brendan Doyle, a 24-year-old business professional from Boca Raton, showed up at his polling place wearing a shirt that riffed on the attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump back in July. “You missed! Trump 2024,” his shirt read.

 Besides supporting Trump, Doyle also said he’d come out to support Amendment 3. “I’m a 100% yes on 3,” Doyle said. “My family is in the weed industry up in Michigan.” It has been legal in that state since 2018.

On the other hand, Donovan Holmes, a 59-year-old business owner and registered Republican from Boca Raton, decided to vote in part due to his opposition to Amendment 3. 

“I am motivated by the economy and specific amendments like not allowing a single corporation to control marijuana," he stated, voicing his concern over monopolistic practices in the cannabis industry. 

“Public smoking of weed should not be allowed because of kids," Holmes added, indicating his conservative approach towards public health and safety. 

President-elect Trump has expressed mixed views on marijuana, stating that while he supports medical marijuana, he has concerns about the regulation of recreational marijuana and believes its legalization should be decided by individual states. Gov. Ron DeSantis believes it will lead to a degradation of public spaces, increase the prevalence of dangerous drugs, and harm the overall quality of life in the state of Florida. Holmes and Doyle's differing stances exemplify the division between Florida Republicans on this issue. 

FAU student Max Curtis came to his polling place with a very specific task while sporting an all over punk style with black shaggy hair and a notable lip piercing. “A major issue for me is abortion,” he said. 

Curtis shared a deeply personal reason for supporting abortion rights. 

“On abortion, it’s really personal to me because I've been sexually assaulted. And if I got pregnant and I couldn't abort the baby, I don't know what I would do with my life,” Curtis shared. “I don’t know how I could live with that. Also, just like scientifically, I don't think that you can really classify a fetus as a human.”

Independent voter Keith M. Popiel, 68,lives in Boca Raton. He voted Democrat this election, but one of his main motivating factors in voting was to support both abortion access and legalizing marijuana. “I’m in favor of Amendment 3,” said Popiel, an architect, “as long as private companies don’t contaminate the organic marijuana and strip it of its beneficial medical purposes, just for the sake of corporate profit.”

Democratic lawmakers in the Florida legislature have argued that, in particular when it comes to abortion access, the 57% passage rate of Amendment 4 indicates a groundswell of opinion that the Republican super-majority in Tallahassee should consider in the upcoming season.  But DeSantis and Republican legislators have given no indication that they are willing to work across the aisle and discuss the six-week ban. Rather, in the next session, GOP lawmakers may try to push the bar for a constitutional amendment even higher, to 66.67 percent, as was proposed earlier this year.