| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to proposed constitutional amendments or |
| 3 | other public measures; amending s. 101.161, F.S.; |
| 4 | requiring that ballot summaries be expressed in single- |
| 5 | sentence explanatory statements; providing an effective |
| 6 | date. |
| 7 |
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| 8 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 9 |
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| 10 | Section 1. Subsection (1) of section 101.161, Florida |
| 11 | Statutes, is amended to read: |
| 12 | 101.161 Referenda; ballots.-- |
| 13 | (1) Whenever a constitutional amendment or other public |
| 14 | measure is submitted to the vote of the people, the substance of |
| 15 | such amendment or other public measure shall be summarized in a |
| 16 | brief one-sentence explanatory statement using printed in clear |
| 17 | and unambiguous language. The explanatory statement shall appear |
| 18 | on the ballot after the list of candidates, followed by the word |
| 19 | "yes" and also by the word "no," and shall be styled in such a |
| 20 | manner that a "yes" vote will indicate approval of the proposal |
| 21 | and a "no" vote will indicate rejection. The wording of the |
| 22 | substance of the amendment or other public measure and the |
| 23 | ballot title to appear on the ballot shall be embodied in the |
| 24 | joint resolution, constitutional revision commission proposal, |
| 25 | constitutional convention proposal, taxation and budget reform |
| 26 | commission proposal, or enabling resolution or ordinance. Except |
| 27 | for amendments and ballot language proposed by joint resolution, |
| 28 | the substance of the amendment or other public measure shall be |
| 29 | an explanatory statement, not exceeding 75 words in length, of |
| 30 | the chief purpose of the measure. In addition, for every |
| 31 | amendment proposed by initiative, the ballot shall include, |
| 32 | following the ballot summary, a separate financial impact |
| 33 | statement concerning the measure prepared by the Financial |
| 34 | Impact Estimating Conference in accordance with s. 100.371(5). |
| 35 | The ballot title shall consist of a caption, not exceeding 15 |
| 36 | words in length, by which the measure is commonly referred to or |
| 37 | spoken of. |
| 38 | Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2009. |