Florida Amendment 3, 60% Majority Requirement for Constitutional Amendments Amendment (2006)

Florida Amendment 3
Election date November 7, 2006
Topic Constitutional language and Supermajority requirements
Status Approved
Type Legislatively referred constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Florida Amendment 3 was on the ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in Florida on November 7, 2006. It was approved.

A “yes” vote supported requiring a 60% vote for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

A “no” vote opposed requiring a 60% vote for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

Election results

Florida Amendment 3
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		2,600,969	57.78%
No		1,900,359	42.22%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Amendment 3 was as follows:

“

Proposes an amendment to Section 5 of Article XI of the State Constitution to require that any proposed amendment to or revision of the State Constitution, whether proposed by the Legislature, by initiative, or by any other method, must be approved by at least 60 percent of the voters of the state voting on the measure, rather than by a simple majority. This proposed amendment would not change the current requirement that a proposed constitutional amendment imposing a new state tax or fee be approved by at least 2/3 of the voters of the state voting in the election in which such an amendment is considered.

”

Ballot summary

The ballot summary for this measure was:

“

Proposes an amendment to Section 5 of Article XI of the State Constitution to require that any proposed amendment to or revision of the State Constitution, whether proposed by the Legislature, by initiative, or by any other method, must be approved by at least 60 percent of the voters of the state voting on the measure, rather than by a simple majority. This proposed amendment would not change the current requirement that a proposed constitutional amendment imposing a new state tax or fee be approved by at least 2/3 of the voters of the state voting in the election in which such an amendment is considered.

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Constitutional changes

The text of the amendment read:

SECTION5.Amendment or revision election.— (a) A proposed amendment to or revision of this constitution, or any part of it, shall be submitted to the electors at the next general election held more than ninety days after the joint resolution or report of revision commission, constitutional convention or taxation and budget reform commission proposing it is filed with the custodian of state records, unless, pursuant to law enacted by the affirmative vote of three-fourths of the membership of each house of the legislature and limited to a single amendment or revision, it is submitted at an earlier special election held more than ninety days after such filing. (b) A proposed amendment or revision of this constitution, or any part of it, by initiatives hall be submitted to the electors at the general election provided the initiative petition is filed with the custodian of state records no later than February 1 of the year in which the general election is held. (c) The legislature shall provide by general law, prior to the holding of an election pursuant to this section, for the provision of a statement to the public regarding the probable financial impact of any amendment proposed by initiative pursuant to section 3. (d) Once in the tenth week, and once in the sixth week immediately preceding the week in which the election is held, the proposed amendment or revision, with notice of the date of election at which it will be submitted to the electors, shall be published in one newspaper of general circulation in each county in which a newspaper is published. (e) Unless otherwise specifically provided for else wherein this constitution, if the proposed amendment or revision is approved by vote of at least sixty percent of the electors voting on the measure, it shall be effective as an amendment to or revision of the constitution of the state on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January following the election, or on such other date as may be specified in the amendment or revision.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Florida Constitution

A 60% vote was required during one legislative session for the Florida State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounted to a minimum of 51 votes in the Florida House of Representatives and 18 votes in the Florida State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments did not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot. Amendments on the ballot required a simple majority vote in this year.

See also

2006 Measures

• 2006 Measures
• Constitutional language on the ballot
• Supermajority requirements on the ballot
• 2006 legislative sessions

Florida

• Florida ballot measures
• Florida ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Florida Division of Elections, "Initiatives / Amendments / Revisions Database"