GROUPS SEEK SIGNATURES TO AMEND CONSTITUTION

TALLAHASSEE - A ban on public smoking. Mandatory treatment of
low-level drug offenders. Slot machines at race tracks. Humane
treatment of pregnant pigs.

These are some - but not all - of the issues that people and groups
want to get on the November ballot and then in the Florida
Constitution.

Other possible contenders include a cap on class sizes, which is
being pushed by a state senator, and resurrection of an independent
board to oversee state universities, an issue championed by a U.S.
senator.

There are nearly two dozen other "active" citizen initiatives,
including proposals to legalize marijuana, protect children from
abuse and give voters an option of "none of the above" on Election
Day.

But most have few, if any, signatures collected. And a lot of
signatures are needed to get on the ballot - nearly half a million.

Not that signatures alone can get a constitutional amendment proposed
by petition drive on the ballot. All citizen initiatives also need to
get the green light from the state Supreme Court, which reviews
proposed measures for scope and clarity.

The high court will bar from the ballot any citizen initiative it
judges to deal with more than one subject. It will also reject
proposed amendments if it believes the ballot title or summary is
confusing or misleading.

"The process is fairly self-cleansing in that you've got these two
monstrous thresholds that you have to meet," said John Sowinski, an
Orlando public relations consultant who has worked for and against
several citizen initiatives over the last decade.

Sowinski, who is working for a citizen initiative to ban public
smoking, said last week he would be shocked if all six of the most
active petition drives made it to the ballot.

"If history repeats itself, four or five of them might get the
requisite signatures they need and out of those four or five, the
court might permit two or three of them on the ballot," he said.

Sixteen citizen initiatives have made the ballot in the last 30 years
and 11 have been added to the constitution.

The amendment Sowinski is working for has the most signatures
verified to the state, more than 215,000. That proposal would ban all
smoking in restaurants and workplaces.

Next is the slot machine proposal, with some 153,000 verified
signatures, and the humane treatment of pregnant pigs measure, with
133,000 signatures.

The slot-machine measure would let voters in 18 counties that have a
horse track, dog track or jai-alai fronton decide whether those pari-
mutuel facilities could install slot machines.