Lawsuit: Medical marijuana amendment left off mail-in ballots

At least 1 Broward County ballot without medical marijuana amendment reported

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A lawsuit filed in southeast Florida alleges that the medical marijuana amendment was left off some mail-in ballots.

Attorneys said they are not sure if it was a half-dozen, 10,000 or 100,000 ballots.

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A quarter-million ballots have gone out in Broward County and 60,000 have already been returned.

At least one ballot without the medical marijuana amendment was reported last week.

Mark Herron, elections law expert and former Al Gore attorney from the 2000 election, said the first step is figuring out how widespread the mistake might be.

“So, I think the court needs to figure out (what) is the nature and scope of the problem? How broad or deep is it?" Herron said. 

Attorney Norman Kent filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of voter Karen Goldstein. In it, he called the consequences potentially catastrophic and cataclysmic.

“Anybody who was sent out a voting ballot without Amendment 2 on it, have immediately reissued a new ballot," said Kent, an attorney for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

One theory was that it was a collating error -- each precinct has a different ballot style and a clerk simply grabbed the wrong page three.

If collating is the problem, Herron believes the number of bad ballots could be limited.

“But with respect to people who have already voted, I’m not sure you can correct that problem," Herron said. 

News4Jax asked Herron if it was reasonable to do a recount on all the absentee ballots that are still out and see if that question on them.

"I think that would be part of the effort to deal with Election Day counting," Herron said.

In 2014, voters in Broward approved Amendment 2 by the biggest margin in the state.

The Broward Supervisor of Elections Office is not without problems. In August, the office was criticized for releasing election results a half hour early. The office has also been criticized for sending out inaccurate voter cards and once printed "yes" in the "no" line of a tax referendum.