Florida: Broward election chief prevails in lawsuit about ballot amendment on medical marijuana

[Eugene]

Source: Sun-Sentinel

Broward election chief prevails in lawsuit about ballot amendment on medical marijuana

By Rafael Olmeda
Sun-Sentinel

OCTOBER 28, 2016, 2:40 PM

The Broward Supervisor of Elections Office is doing enough — and doesn't need to be forced to do more — to warn voters to make sure their ballots contain the medical marijuana referendum, a Broward judge ruled Friday.

Broward Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips issued a written ruling after two hearings this week on a lawsuit filed by the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML), which was seeking to have a judge order the elections supervisor to take additional steps to make sure voters were aware that there was a potential problem with their ballots.

But those steps are not necessary, Phillips ruled.

"Affirmative acts taken by (Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda) Snipes to remedy the four known defective ballots, to prevent further defective ballots from being disseminated to voters, and to educate voters about the possibility of defects, are rational and not clearly outside legal requirements," Phillips wrote.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-broward-election-marijuana-decision-20161028-story.html

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Oh, I'm sure it's just an "isolated incident"

Now watch as Broward County discovers after election day that most of the people haven't been allowed to vote on Measure 2. Ooops-eee! Oh well, sorry.

[Eleanors38]

2. A lot at stake, here. As Florida goes on legalization, so goes the nation.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. not really true. California is the 8th largest economy on the planet, population 38 million.

If California legalizes- and it probably will- for full recreational use, there's really not a whole fuck prohibitionists can do. One way or another, the clock is ticking on federal prohibition. They can't put the entire West Coast of the United States in jail.

[Eleanors38]

6. Cali is on the West coast. Florida rests below the deep South, like a bomb...

Think lotto in the late Seventies. People made a living buying FL lotto tckets and selling them with a mark-up to points far and near -- until state governments from Mississippi to Mars said:. "I ain't giving our tax dollars to friggin' Florida." Lotto is pretty much everywhere, with casinos moored on the beach in Mississippi.

[TonyPDX]

5. I don't think so. The pharmacuetical industry values the state immensley, and if seniors determine

a cannabis derivative is effective, Big Pharma's death grip will loosen.

[Eleanors38]

7. Well, it seems you agree.

[TonyPDX]

8. I don't regard my home state as a bellwether for the nation as a whole.

Some populations are over-represented there, especially (and obviously) seniors. I grew up in the panhandle and attended college in south Florida. Television commercials and printed advertisements in the so-called Sun Belt (otherwise known as God's Waiting Room) mostly targeted the massive tribe of prescription-takers that retire there. It's not something one becomes aware of on a holiday to Disney World, but the sheer number of seniors settled in that region is staggering.

If the pharmaceutical industry loses Florida to cannabis alternatives then they lose a historically important revenue center. I don't believe they'll risk that loss, not as long as they have a dollar left to buy a politician's vote with. For that reason, plus the infra-red conservatives that control the northern portion of the state, expect Florida to be the very LAST state to legalize.

[Eleanors38]

9. Unlike most, I have little faith in the all-seeing power of economic determinism...

It is little more than secular Bible-quoting designed to stop any intelligent conversation.

I think FL will pass med marijuana in 2 weeks, and be poised to float a recreational use measure within a few years, which would pass, esp. if those well-heeled PharmCo interests decide it has little to do with them, and esp. when alcohol manufacturers realize that reefer has little to do with drinking habits. At that time, eco-determ might come into real effect if a campaign is built around saving money, and raising use taxes. Florida is, imo, better positioned that MA, where pot legalization is polling 50-50 with opposition from the prohibitionist Democratic AG and the GOPer Governor. In the end, you have to hope I am right, and I have to hope you are wrong!



I grew up in G'ville, my Mom's family goes back to Antebellum Bartow area. Somewhere in our history the expression handed down was this: "If it ain't been tried, it'll be tried in Florida."

[TonyPDX]

10. For the sake of those living there now, I hope your inclinations are right and mine are wrong.