WASHINGTON, D.C. — Florida’s ballot amendment to legalize adult recreational marijuana use for people 21 and older could make the state more competitive when it comes to the presidential race, according to political experts. 

What You Need To Know

  • Amendment 3 would legalize recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and up

  • Political analysts say it could boost young voter turnout in the November election

  • The amendment needs the support of at least 60% of voters to go into effect, a high threshold advocates say

While Republicans have nearly 900,000 more registered voters in the state than Democrats, the measure could help drive enthusiasm among younger voters for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

“The president is really suffering with young voters ages 18 to 29. The exact voters that really delivered the White House three and a half years ago — he needs to win them back. Will this be enough in Florida? I’m not quite sure. They also have the abortion issue on the agenda, which should also turnout a lot more women and young voters. I don’t know if that will be enough to overcome Trump. But, what it might do is make Florida competitive,” said Professor Todd Belt with the George Washington University. 

The Florida GOP opposes both the marijuana legalization effort known as Amendment 3, and Amendment 4 on abortion. While the abortion amendment specifies, “no law shall prohibit or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect a patient’s health” — that exception is already included in Florida’s 6-week abortion law to save a woman’s life. The law also includes exceptions for rape and incest up until 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“Floridians are confident that their legislature has been passing laws that reflect the priorities of our state. Amendments 3 and 4 are unnecessary attempts by an increasingly shrinking minority who know the only way to win support for their radical agenda is to confuse and mislead the electorate,” Republican state party chairman Evan Power said in a statement. 

However, Belt believes some voters may split with their party on ballot issues like recreational weed.

“I think what’s going to be really interesting in Florida is we have a number of ways people might split their ticket in this one. We’ve also got a Senate race going on too. And, I don’t think people are going to be voting straight up and down the ballot all one way as the parties might want them to,” Belt said. 

The marijuana amendment faces an uphill battle in Florida, requiring the support of 60% of voters to be approved, something advocates acknowledge is a high threshold. 

“Florida is obviously a huge state where it’s very expensive to run a campaign. So, we might see the most expensive cannabis reform ballot initiative campaign in history in Florida this fall, with voters deciding on election day for full recreational. So Florida is a hotspot this year in terms of cannabis policy reform, for sure,” said Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project Matthew Schweich.