Election Results: Six State Constitutional Amendments Before Voters in the 2024 General Election

Six proposed state constitutional amendments were on Florida voters’ General Election ballots this year, and voters approved two of the measures. Constitutional amendments require 60 percent approval from the electorate to pass.

Amendment 1 - Partisan Election of Members of District School Boards

The measure failed with only 54% voting in favor. 

Proposed by the Florida Legislature, the amendment would have required members of school boards in Florida to be elected in partisan rather than nonpartisan elections.

Amendment 2 - Right to Fish and Hunt

The measure passed with 67% voting in favor.

Proposed by the Florida Legislature with bipartisan support, the amendment sought to provide a constitutional right to fish and hunt, including "traditional methods."

Opponents argued that there was no evidence that Floridians needed broader access to hunting and fishing and feared that the traditional methods language was meant to circumvent the gill net ban voters passed by referendum in 1994.

Advocates of the measure argued that Amendment 2 would prevent extremists from taking away citizen rights. 

Amendment 3 - Adult Personal Use of Marijuana

The measure failed with only 55% voting in favor.

This citizen initiative sought to legalize recreational marijuana throughout Florida for adults. Medical marijuana passed with 71 percent of the vote in 2016. However, the drug remains illegal federally.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have legalized possession of marijuana for adults, and the Biden administration has instructed the Department of Health and Human Services to begin taking steps toward reclassifying it from a Schedule 1 narcotic to a Schedule 3 drug.

Amendment 4 - Limit Government Interference with Abortion

The measure narrowly failed with 57% voting in favor.

Proposed by citizen initiative, Amendment 4 sought to provide a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability (estimated to be around 24 weeks) or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider.

Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution's right to privacy does not include the right to abortion. This decision overturned a 1989 ruling that found that the privacy clause did include a right to abortion.

The ruling allowed the state's 2022 15-week abortion ban to take effect. In 2023, the legislature went a step further, passing the Heartbeat Protection Act to ban abortion at six weeks, which was contingent on the state supreme court overturning its prior ruling.

Amendment 5 - Annual Adjustments to the Value of Certain Homestead Exemptions

The measure passed with 66% voting in favor.

Proposed by the Florida Legislature, Amendment 5 requires an annual inflation adjustment to the value of current or future homestead exemptions that apply solely to levies other than school district levies and for which every person who has legal or equitable title to real estate and maintains thereon the permanent residence of the owner, or another person legally or naturally dependent upon the owner is eligible. The measure will take effect on January 1, 2025.

Amendment 6 - Repeal of Public Campaign Financing Requirement

The measure failed with only 50% voting in favor.

Amendment 6 was also proposed by the Florida Legislature, the measure would have repealed the requirement for public financing for campaigns of candidates for elective statewide office who agree to campaign spending limits.

In 1998, Florida voters passed an amendment providing for public funding for candidates for state office by 64%. A 2011 effort to repeal public financing failed. Public financing in Florida is available for gubernatorial candidates and elected cabinet members (attorney general, chief financial officer, and commissioner of agriculture).