Leon County Charter and Ordinance Initiatives

Any resident of Leon County can propose amendments to the county charter, new county ordinances, or repeal of an existing ordinance. The initiative process is governed by Sec. 4.1 and Sec. 5.2(1) of the Leon County Charter and applicable requirements of state law.

Though not comprehensive, a brief summary of the steps in the process is provided below:  

  1. Create a political committee. The political committee is the official sponsor of the initiative.
  2. Write the text of the proposed initiative and create the petition form. See below for details.
  3. Submit the petition form to our office for review. 
  4. Publish notice of the initiative in a newspaper.
  5. Circulate the petition for signature by Leon County voters.
  6. Deliver signed petitions to the Elections Office and pay for signature verification. 
  7. We verify the information on the petitions. 
    • If enough petitions are verified, we will notify you and the Board of County Commissioners.
    • If not enough petitions are verified, you have the opportunity to submit more petitions. If you still do not have enough petitions, your initiative ends. 
  8. For county ordinances, the Board of County Commissioners votes on the initiative. 
    • If the Board approves the initiative, it becomes part of the county ordinances and the initiative ends. 
    • If the Board does not approve the initiative, it will be presented to the voters on the General Election ballot. 
  9. If the proposed initiative appears on the General Election ballot, the initiative must be approved by a majority of voters for adoption.

Create Political Committee

Visit our Committee Information webpage for information on how to create a political committee.

Reporting

Political committees must file reports using the campaign finance reporting system. 

In addition, committees must file quarterly reports on the number of petition forms gathered. You will need to file these reports manually with our office.

Petition Language and Format

You will need to write the full text of your proposed initiative. It must be about a single subject.

We cannot help you write the language. You may want to work with an attorney to assist you. 

County ordinance initiatives cannot include changes to:

  • County Budget
  • Debt Obligations
  • Capital Improvement Programs
  • Salaries of County Officers and Employees
  • Assessment or Collection of Taxes
  • Zoning of Land

Your petition form must include the following information:

  • A ballot title of 15 words or less
  • A ballot summary of 75 words or less 
  • The full text of the proposed amendment or ordinance
  • Spaces for the following voter information:
    • Name
    • Address
    • Date of Birth
    • Signature and date signed by the voter
  • A political disclaimer reading: Pd. Pol. Adv. Paid for by [name and address of your committee]

We cannot create the form for you. Before you begin circulating the form for signature, you must submit it to our office for review. 

Public Notice Requirements

You must publish a notice of the petition in a newspaper of general circulation in Leon County. You must do this within fourteen days of submitting the petition to our office. 

Petition Signatures

Any voter registered in Leon County can sign your petition. Each voter can only sign once.

Number of Petitions Required

For the 2026 Election Cycle, you must have at least 19,574 petitions verified. This is 10% of the number of voters in Leon County as of the 2024 General Election. 

Some petitions you gather may not be valid. We recommend that you gather additional petitions above the minimum to allow for rejected petitions.

The petitions must be distributed in all five County Commissioner districts. See the chart below for the number of petitions in each district. 

 

County Commission District Voter Registration - 2024 Required Petitions Recommended Petitions
1 32,112 3,212 3,694
2 30,756 3,076 3,538
3 40,894 4,090 4,704
4 46,752 4,673 5,374
5 45,222 4,523 5,202
Total 195,736 19,574 22,512

Submit Completed Petitions

You can mail the completed petitions to our office or drop them off in-person during normal business hours. You must submit all your initial petitions in one batch. 

You must submit your initial batch of petitions by noon, January 3, 2024.

If the initial batch does not contain enough valid petitions, we will notify you. You will then have 30 days to submit an additional batch of petitions. 

All the petitions must be submitted within one year of the review of the petition form. 

Petition Verification Costs

Visit the citizen initiatives page to view the cost of petition verification.  We cannot start petition verification until the fee is paid.

If you are unable to pay the cost of verification, you can file an Affidavit of Undue Burden to waive the verification fees. However, if you file an undue burden you cannot pay people to circulate your petition. Also, at the end of the election before you dispose of any remaining funds, you must reimburse our office for the cost of petition verification if sufficient funds remain.

Petition Verification Process

We reject a petition as invalid if:

  • The person signing the petition is not registered to vote in Leon County.
  • The person has already signed the petition. 
  • The petition form has errors. 
  • The petition is incomplete or illegible. 

We will verify the initial batch of petitions within 60 days. If you submit an additional batch of petitions, we will verify them within 30 days.

The random sampling method of petition verification cannot be used for Leon County Charter and ordinance initiatives, due to the requirement to have petitions distributed in all five county commission districts. 

Once enough valid signatures have been verified in all the County Commission districts, we will pause any further verification and notify you and the Board of County Commissioners.