What happens if Amendments 3 and 4 are passed in Florida? We VERIFY

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Floridians will soon know whether abortion access and recreational marijuana will be protected under the state constitution. Amendments 3 and 4 have garnered lots of national attention and commercial air time throughout the 2024 election cycle, as the outcomes could make history.

Lieutenant Governor of Florida Jeanette Nuñez said on Monday that voters can expect to know the results "very quickly" after polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day.

"Unlike other states where it may be Wednesday, it may be Thursday, it may be 10 days from now, we are very confident that...we're going to have those results very quickly," she said.

Through all the campaigning for and against the amendments, one thing that doesn't get communicated often is what exactly happens if they both pass. Will Floridians be able to start smoking weed in public on Wednesday morning? Will Florida's current abortion law go back to square one?

Enshrining amendments into the state constitution goes beyond getting enough votes at the polls. It's the process that comes after that determines when the changes go into effect, and what power lawmakers still have to pass regulations.

OUR SOURCES

• Florida Statutes on abortion
• Florida Statutes on medical marijuana
• Michael T. Morely, election law professor at the Florida State University College of Law
• Amendment 3 official language
• Amendment 4 official language
• Safe and Smart Florida, group supporting proposal
• The Office of Medical Marijuana Use in Florida

What happens if Amendment 3 (recreational marijuana) passes?

THE QUESTION

If Amendment 3 passes, will recreational marijuana immediately become legal?

THE ANSWER

No, recreational marijuana won’t instantly become legal. State lawmakers will need to pass implementing legislation.

WHAT WE FOUND

If Amendment 3 passes, recreational marijuana won't officially become legalized until the Florida legislature passes a law implementing the amendment and regulating the industry.

As lawmakers draft that bill, they would be able to include provisions that further regulate recreational marijuana without violating the constitutional amendment. For example, rules on where marijuana can be smoked and how it must be sold can be put in place by the implementing legislation.

This path toward legalization would look very similar to when Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana in November 2016. The implementing bill wasn't signed into law until June 2017, and it banned patients from being able to smoke it. Cannabis advocates then sued. It took two years for state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing medical marijuana in forms that can be smoked.

This time around, Amendment 3 explicitly protects the ability to smoke recreational marijuana, so if it passes, lawmakers wouldn't be able to ban smoking it without violating the state constitution.

However, it doesn't say anything about where it can and can't be smoked, leaving that decision up to lawmakers through the implementing bill.

Campaign ads against Amendment 3 have claimed that if passed, people would be able to smoke pot in public spaces, stadium events and "even restaurants." That claim is misleading.

RELATED: Smoking in public? Home-grown pot? We VERIFY claims about Florida's recreational marijuana proposal.

Florida's Republican-controlled legislature has the ability and power to ban smoking marijuana in certain places, just as smoking cigarettes, cigars or vaping is already prohibited in certain spots. Those rules would be included in the bill that would legalize recreational marijuana.

The entire process from Amendment 3's potential passage to the implementing legislation going into effect could take around six months.

What happens if Amendment 4 (abortion access) passes?

THE QUESTION

If passed, would Amendment 4 immediately go into effect?

THE ANSWER

Yes, if Amendment 4 gets at least 60% of voters' support in Florida, it would go into effect as soon as all ballots are certified by the secretary of state.

WHAT WE FOUND

Even if the results are called on the night of Election Day, they aren't official until they are certified by the secretary of state on Nov. 19. Only then can they be ratified.

"The amendment is self-executing," Florida State Univerity College of Law professor Michael Morley said. "It doesn't contain any sort of effective date or delay period, and so immediately upon ratification of the amendment, it would render state laws that conflict with its text unconstitutional."

Amendment 4's ballot summary consists of two sentences. The first one states that "no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."

So what parts of Florida's current 6-week abortion ban would be struck down? Currently, abortions after six weeks are prohibited unless it's to protect the woman's health, or if there is documentation showing she is a victim of rape, incest or human trafficking. Those exceptions are allowed up to 15 weeks. After that, the only exception allowed is to save the life of the mother.

If Amendment 4 passes, all of that goes away.

"A court wouldn't have to actually rule on that," Morley said. "Simply by virtue of existing, the amendment would nullify any laws that contradict its text."

Women would have the right to choose whether to get an abortion until the fetus can survive outside of the womb, also known as "fetal viability" which typically occurs around 24 weeks of pregnancy. They wouldn't need to get approval under an exception unless they seek an abortion after viability, in which case the exceptions must at least include protecting the mother's health.

So what parts of Florida's current 6-week ban would stay in place? The second sentence in Amendment 4's ballot summary says that it "does not change the Legislature's constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion."

This upholds the existing provision that requires parents or guardians to be told their minor child is seeking an abortion before the procedure happens. It also allows Florida's current parental consent law to stay in place, requiring permission from parents or guardians before their minor child can have an abortion, as it doesn't specifically address consent.

RELATED: Parental consent eliminated? What we can VERIFY about Florida's Amendment 4 abortion measure

Other regulations that are likely to remain unaffected are things like the ban on public funds going toward abortions and restrictions on abortions after viability, as long as the exception to protect the mother's health is in place.

Additionally, Morley said there's nothing stopping state lawmakers from passing bills that could "flesh out" parts of Amendment 4. For example, adding the definitions for "viability" and "healthcare provider," which are already defined under Florida statutes.

"There's also likely room for the legislature to step in and provide a bit more detail and a little bit more specificity about what it means for the health of the mother to be jeopardized," Morley said. "I certainly think during that post-viability period, there's a lot more room to see future legislation where the legislature, as you said, either created additional exceptions or flushes out some of the details of what the state constitutional provision is saying."

Morley said it wouldn't be shocking to see some lawsuits get filed that seek to get rid of some of the restrictions that end up staying in place if Amendment 4 is passed. But those will likely be long legal battles that are ultimately decided by a judge, not by the results on election night.