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Solar Amendment Defeated, Medical Marijuana Goes Into Florida Constitution

Mike Ray/flickr

More than 70% of Florida voters gave their support to constitutional Amendment 2, allowing the use of medical marijuana for debilitating conditions in the state. Backers of Amendment 1 did not have the same luck: the proposal failed to reach the 60 percent of support required for it to pass.

Voters also endorsed with more than 83% Amendment 3, to include into the state's constitution a provision giving tax exemptions for first-responders that have been totally and permanently disabled on the line of duty, and approved Amendment 5, giving homestead tax exemptions to certain low-income, long-term senior residents, with more than 78% of votes. 

The utility-backed  Amendment 1 had been mired in controversy since its start. Most recently, environmental groups were up in arms when a recording was published of an Amendment 1 supporter celebrating the group's ability to use intentionally deceptive tactics to get the measure passed. However, this merely confirmed what opponents of the measure have said all along.

While most Floridians support increasing solar, the Sunshine State lags behind others in the use of the renewable energy source.

The amendment could have opened the door for fees to be levied on individual solar panel owners, while supporters of the amendment said it would have prevented rates for non-solar users to go up.

Here are the final results for the constitutional amendments in the Florida ballot for the November 2016 elections: 

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Wilson Sayre was born and bred in Raleigh, N.C., home of the only real barbecue in the country (we're talking East here). She graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she studied Philosophy.