Battle over abortion rights measure intensifies as Columbia, KC, St. Louis mayors fight for ballot inclusion

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

With a ballot deadline looming, mayors of some of Missouri's largest cities have submitted their arguments for why a decertified measure that would legalize abortion should appear on the ballot. 

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, St. Louis Mayor Tishuara Jones, Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe, and St. Louis County Director Sam Page submitted a 12-page amicus brief on Monday requesting that the Missouri Supreme Court allow voters an opportunity to vote on Amendment 3. The amicus brief argues that the nearly 2 million Missourians those cities represent are being denied their constitutional rights to a free and fair election. 

Buffaloe says it only took two days to put the brief together after speaking with the other mayors over the weekend.  

“I was really doing it for the voters of Columbia, for those who want this to be put to a vote of the people, and then for what happens happens. For me, when I look at this, it's very rare for the courts to kind of overturn such a successful initiative petition that has been certified by the Secretary of State,” Buffaloe said. “The language that was on the initiative petition is what the ballot language is now. And so I think it kind of sets a different precedent, if it doesn't get overturned. But I think really, just at the end of the day, all mayors and all elected officials just want the voice of their people to be heard.” 

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced that Amendment 3, which would restore abortion rights in the state, would appear on the ballot after an initiative petition to enshrine abortion rights in Missouri’s constitution received more than 380,000 signatures, doubling the amount needed. 

“In Columbia, we had over 23,000 people sign the initiative petition,” Buffaloe said. “That's more than votes in a mayor election.  And so I knew that that was important for people to then have their voice heard and have it be on the ballot. And so that's why I agreed to join with Mayor Lucas, Mayor Jones, as well as a couple of county executives.” 

On Friday, Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled that the petition didn’t meet the legal requirements to appear on the November ballot. Limbaugh ruled that the leaders of the abortion rights campaign failed to include statutes that would be repealed if the amendment is passed in November. The state’s high court will hear an appeal on Tuesday, the same day the deadline to have the petition removed falls. 

Following Limbaugh’s ruling, Ashcroft -- who is against abortion access in the state -- decertified the ballot measure. On Monday Amendment 3 was removed from the ballot measures that appear on the Secretary of State’s website. 

“There is nothing in Missouri law that authorizes, as the secretary of state to decertify an issue or a candidate from the ballot. I'm quite concerned that the secretary of state even attempted to do this,” said Dave Roland, who is the director of litigation for the Freedom Center of Missouri. “To put it in context,  if a secretary of state has the authority to unilaterally decertify an issue or a candidate there is nothing that would prevent them from waiting until the day before ballots are supposed to be locked in place and there's zero authority from that point forward to add candidates or issues to the ballot or to remove candidates or issues from the ballot. The secretary of state could wait until the day before that deadline and then announce, ‘Oh, by the way, I'm decertifying this issue.’” 

Before decritifying the measure, Ashcroft was ordered to remove his “fair ballot language summary” published for Amendment 3 after Cole County Judge Cotton Walker determined it was confusing to the voters following a lawsuit. The summary, which would have been posted in polling places across the state, read:

 “A ‘yes’ vote will enshrine the right to abortion at any time of pregnancy in the Missouri Constitution. Additionally, it will prohibit any regulation of abortion, including regulations designed to protect women undergoing abortions and prohibit any civil or criminal recourse against anyone who performs an abortion and hurts or kills the pregnant woman.” 

On Sept. 5, Walker ruled that the language was improper and then drafted language that would replace Ashcroft’s. Roland believes the issue could still be appealed, but added that the issue would go away if the state's high court decides the issue will no longer appear on the ballot. 

The 12-page amicus brief submitted by the trio of mayors cites five previous court cases as to why upholding Limbaugh’s ruling would be unconstitutional. 

“These anit-democratic actions done through refusing to perform ministerial duties, misleading voters, or pursuing last-minute judicial intervention- undermine constitutional guarantees of civic participation to disrespect the people’s right to self-govern,” the brief states. 

“I feel the people that were collecting the signatures appeared to know what they were doing and I didn't feel whenever I saw them out there that I was getting any false information about what was on the initiative petition, Buffaloe said. “Really, just at the end of the day, I'm hoping that the voter's votes are counted.” 

Roland said the Missouri Supreme Court decision could have long-lasting effects on initiative petitions in the state moving forward. Initiative petitions were used to get the legalization of marijuana on the ballot as well as expand Medicaid. 

 “The way that the initiative gets used in Missouri is citizens bringing issues forward that the General Assembly very clearly does not want to touch. But they are issues that in many circumstances are very popular among the voters. The initiative is the only way that they can get these policies enacted. What the trial judge's ruling would do is it would make all of these petitions subject to challenge after the citizens,” Roland said. “In short, it would be devastating. It would discourage people from bringing initiatives forward to begin with. Even if they were able to mount an effort to give them the initiative on the ballot and have it certified,  there's a very distinct possibility that all of their hard work could be undone if someone can hand up one or two statutes that they somehow didn't mention on the text of the petition itself.”