After months of voters getting bombarded with television ads and mail pieces, Election Day is here.
Of course, much of the national attention will focus on whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will lead the country for the next four years.
Obviously, that race as well as elections to decide congressional majorities, are likely to affect future national health care policy ─ everything from the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, drug costs, reproductive rights, transgender care, water quality, the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court and more.
In Florida, however, voters will finally settle on two constitutional ballot measures that have kept courtrooms busy and emptied a lot of bank accounts as both sides advertised their points.
One legalizes the use of recreational marijuana and the other removes the state government from the abortion conversation
The amendments need support from at least 60% of voters, and there's enough money being spent against them that it could create doubts among voters who normally support the issues, said Florida-based Republican political strategist Jamie Miller.
“As a general rule, amendments pass if there’s no real effort against them and they fail when there are real efforts against them," Miller said.
Amendment 3 would modify current Florida medical marijuana laws to allow recreational consumption for adults without the need for a medical card.
A no vote supports keeping marijuana laws in Florida the same and continues to limit the use of marijuana to only those with a medical certificate. A yes vote authorizes existing medical marijuana treatment centers to acquire, sell and distribute marijuana products and accessories.
It might be an understatement to say the proposal has high stakes.
The Smart & Safe Florida political committee, which is sponsoring the proposed amendment, received more than $153 million in cash and in-kind contributions, with $144.6 million coming from the Trulieve cannabis company.
The proposal comes eight years after Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana. That proposal received support from 71.3 percent of voters.
Amendment 4 has become the center of perhaps the biggest political fight of the year in Florida. It asks voters to decide whether to remove the government from the abortion conversation.
A yes vote supports limiting government intervention on the issue of abortion. If approved, this amendment would constitutionally expand abortion access beyond the first six weeks of a pregnancy up to “viability.”
While the ballot language does not define “viability,” Florida state law says it is the stage of development where the fetus can survive outside of the womb, about 24 weeks.
Voting no supports keeping Florida’s abortion laws as they are, with the procedure banned outside of the first six weeks of a pregnancy.
The genesis of the amendment was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022 to overturn the decades-old Roe v. Wade ruling, leaving states to enact their own abortion laws.
Legislatures in Republican-led states, such as Florida, seized on the decision to restrict access to abortions, with Florida now banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has gone all in to try to defeat both amendments. He has traveled the state to criticize the proposals, and state agencies under his control have run controversial television ads and taken other steps to try to undermine the measures.
It could be a high-risk, high-reward strategy for DeSantis, especially if the abortion amendment does not pass. He would be able to present himself to the Republican base as the governor who held off abortion-rights supporters.
Supporters of Amendment 4 have made clear they view the proposal as nonpartisan, but Democrats could celebrate if voters put abortion rights in the constitution.
At the least, Democrats hope the amendments boost turnout to give them at least a chance stopping Trump's third straight Florida victory and keeping U.S. Sen. Rick Scott from winning a second term.
Even if Trump and Scott are victorious in Florida, Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said the election will be a huge success if these two amendments pass and the party flips enough legislative seats to take away the Republicans' supermajority.
“Look where we were in of November 2022. We had the largest loss that Florida Democrats have ever experienced,” Fried said. “Nobody anticipated that we would even have this conversation today, that the polls are showing that we are tight, that there was even a possibility that Florida would be in play. Everybody counted us out.”
Information from WUFT, News Service of Florida and the Associated Press was used in this report.
