Think Florida has made a mess out of presidential politics in this era? The state’s record is even worse when it comes to direct democracy. Florida continues to take legislative and regulatory steps that undermine the public’s right to make and reverse laws.

In this excellent piece from the Daytona Beach paper, environmental activist John Hedrick explains how Florida has set the deadline for turning in initiative petitions and for certifying signatures for the EXACT SAME DAY. Since signatures don’t count themselves, this ensures administrative chaos -- and worse. To exploit the last minute crunch of signature gathering, some groups have taken to deluging the Secretary of State’s office with signatures at the deadline to make it more difficult to count the signatures on initiatives they don’t like.