Recreational marijuana use vote in Missouri still in limbo as petitions counted

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been corrected to reflect the spelling of a name and organization.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Election authorities are still trying to figure out if Missourians will vote on recreational marijuana this year but the group behind the ballot measure says it hopes to know within the next couple of weeks.

This means Missouri could be the next state to take up the issue of legalizing marijuana for people 21 years old and over.

Supporters already submitted more than 700 boxes of petitions containing more than 400,000 petitions. A number that Alan Zagier, with the group Legal Missouri 2022, is hopeful will get the question on the ballot.

"We're confident and optimistic that voters are going to have a chance to decide for themselves and were working hard and diligently," said Zagier.

However, Zagier says right now there are more than enough signatures to qualify for the November election which means over the next couple of weeks there's going to be a lot of work to do. 

"We want to make sure and ensure that every valid voter signature on behalf of the Legal Missouri 2022 adult use marijuana initiative petition is counted properly," said Zagier.

And there's also still a lot of counting to do meaning any numbers that are currently certified by the local election authorities are only the first draft. 

"But with something like this where your variants could be a couple of thousand signatures that does not tell us whether it will fail or pass but we will put out our final numbers," said Jay Ashcroft, Missouri's Secretary of State.

The secretary of state has to make a decision by 5 p.m. Aug. 9.

To learn more about the verification process of petitions click here.