A federal judge on Thursday refused to issue a preliminary injunction to block a 2019 law that bans workers gathering petitions for ballot initiatives from being paid based on the number of signatures they collect, saying plaintiffs waited too long to ask for the law to be put on hold.
The law, passed by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, made it a crime to continue a longstanding practice of paying petition gatherers based on the number of signatures they collect. Experts have said the changes doubled the cost of getting initiatives on the ballot.
The law also requires petition forms to include information identifying petition gatherers, who are required to register with the state.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including the Florida Right to Pray Together committee, allege, in part, that the law is unconstitutional because the compensation restriction and personal identification requirements only apply to paid circulators working on ballot initiatives and are not imposed on workers who gather signatures for political candidates to qualify for elections.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in January and in August filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction to block the compensation restrictions.
But after hearing arguments Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate “urgency” required to block the law.
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