I spoke at the Florida House Committee meeting in Tallahassee, Florida on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, regarding House Bill 1205. This bill establishes a new load of restrictions on Florida citizens to prevent us from successfully utilizing our Florida State Constitutional Amendment ballot initiative petition process that Florida citizen-voters can use to create, sign petitions to secure the right to go vote for our proposed amendment law, and in the next scheduled election, to vote to approve and enact new Florida state laws that at least 60% of Floridian voters wish to live with and abide by.
I identified myself as a former volunteer petition coordinator for the Floridians For Freedom (FFF), and advised the elected legislators that those who vote to pass House Bill 1205 to further restrict our rights to petition and vote for our own laws, will in turn face an outpouring avalanche of Floridians voting against them in their next election, to remove them from Florida public office for their vote against us. I have long been a Florida citizen volunteer ballot initiative petition gatherer, engaged with a number of other volunteer progressive and environmental groups collecting voter signed petitions in the past, as well as being a coordinator for the Floridians For Freedom (FFF) from 2015 to 2020.
Today, I am a volunteer petition canvasser for the current Medicaid for Low Income Adults petition to be voted on in order to approve this needed law in the 2026 election. Due to interference from Gov. DeSantis in the spring of 2019, that continued for on several months to stop the collection of voter-signed petitions by volunteer petition collectors, FFF initiated a solid federal lawsuit with our esteemed Civil Rights Attorney, Bill Sheppard, long considered one of the top 5 civil rights attorneys in the U.S. as our lawyer. Bill Sheppard told us that our proposed legal cannabis petition and law was the best he had seen, promptly signed one and then joined us. But we were forced to withdraw from filing due to Bill Sheppard’s concern as to how the U.S. Supreme Court would rule on our case with Trump’s last appointment, Amy Barrett, to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, we won our right to use our original RIGHT OF ADULTS TO CANNABIS petition form for Florida voters to sign, as well as any changes impacting our citizen volunteer group’s petition drive, by late 2019. Our determined efforts saved the day.
We did not lose this fundamental right of Florida citizen-voters to create and vote for laws that Florida politicians repeatedly refuse to enact, despite overwhelming support by Florida voters. Floridians For Freedom were a small group with little money who sponsored the Medical Marijuana petition law, followed up by our Right Of Adults To Cannabis petition law. Both were popular issues, with lots of public support. Therefore, we won back then.
Now we face another attempt by politicians’ intent to remove our right to petition and vote to create our own laws, which is the only way we can control politicians through the collective vote of Floridians. WE can mobilize a movement of Florida voters and remove those politicians in their next election for attempting to tighten and lock down their power over us by passing their own laws to do so! Please feel free to contact me regarding a movement to remove politicians who voted against us and our citizen’s right to create, petition and vote to enact laws we wish to live with and abide by.
Peace, Love, Light within and with you and yours always,
Christopher M. Kennard
4315 SE 10th Place
Ocala, Florida 34471
(352) 375-0375 (No text, please, call me so we speak together)
Email: peacecmk@gmail.com