Floridians for Protecting Freedom announced on Monday that the campaign to get abortion access on the voter ballot in 2024 will reach its initial goal of 1.4 million petitions by the end of the month.

Under Florida law, the grassroots group needs 891,523 valid signatures on petitions from Florida voters throughout the state by Feb. 1. On Friday, the Division of Elections confirmed 753,306 verified petitions statewide — about 85% of the total required to get the amendment on the ballot. Now the organizers need to get another 15% of the signatures they collected verified by state supervisors of elections.

“Our grassroots army across the state has officially collected more than 1.4 million petitions to put abortion on the ballot in 2024,” Democratic Senator Lauren Book said in a news release Tuesday. “The work is not done — but while we are still collecting in targeted congressional districts across the state in order to qualify, it’s clear our campaign to give power to the people is on track to win back our rights.”

Along with getting signatures verified, the organizers also must overcome another hurdle: Of the total, the organizers need to meet signature requirements in at least half of the state’s 28 congressional districts. “Our group is going for 16 so as not to take any chances,” Book said.

Organizers say they have hit the threshold in eight districts and are working overtime to get enough signatures in the additional eight. Broward County’s Congressional District 23 is one that ballot initiative activists have targeted. Volunteers been attending community events and local farmers markets to rally signatures.

“We are looking at official state numbers and need 3,767 more valid petitions in the district by Feb. 1,” said Claire Van Susteren, a volunteer with the Reproductive Freedom Collective of Broward County. “We believe we are closer in how many we have collected but we’re trying to over-collect so we don’t leave anything to chance.”

The campaign must pay overtime to Supervisor of Elections officers around the state to verify signatures, and it must collect more than needed to account for those that may not be able to be verified.

On Tuesday, the statewide group behind the ballot initiative, Floridians Protecting Freedom,  issued a release on their progress: “Floridians have shown that they want to see this initiative on the ballot,” said Campaign Director Lauren Brenzel. “We’re doing a final push and asking everyone who has not yet signed and submitted their petition to get them into the campaign by December 22nd. The state has until February 1st, 2024 to validate petitions and we’re confident we’re going to submit enough petitions to get on the ballot.”

The Division of Elections offices is updating its website weekly with counts of verified signatures. Brenzel notes that voters still have time to make their voices heard and can submit their signatures to Post Office Box 4068, Sarasota, FL 34230. The petitions are available on the Floridians for Reproductive Freedom website.

The stakes are high not only for women in Florida, but also for the thousands who travel from other states with stricter restrictions on the procedure. And the opposition is campaigning too.

Andrew Shirvell, founder and executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn says he and other anti-abortion groups have launched a Decline to Sign campaign, handing out Decline to Sign Awareness Cards in communities throughout Florida.

“We want to be done by Christmas and that means getting rid of all our cards,” Shirvell said. “We have only few hundred left. They have gone like hotcakes over the past couple of months.”

Shirvell said he and his Christian and Catholic activists are holding online prayer meetings to pray that the petition drive fails.

Even as the Floridians Protecting Freedom committee scrambles to get signatures, it also needs the Florida Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed ballot wording, which is under review. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has argued that the court should keep the proposed constitutional amendment off the ballot, saying its wording is misleading — an assertion that abortion rights amendment supporters dispute.

The final hurdle would be getting enough approval from Florida voters. The threshold for a constitutional amendment in Florida is 60%, a difficult measure on any issue.

Sun Sentinel reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at .