Cole County judge considers check-in with Secretary of State as signature verification continues
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
After about three months, the group People Not Politicians is still seeking a ruling from a Cole County Judge on whether more than 100,000 signatures will be verified by Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to put the new Missouri congressional map on the November ballot.
Representatives from People Not Politicians, the Secretary of State's Office and Republican-backed group Put Missouri First met Tuesday morning in court for a case review, with People Not Politicians pushing for a decision from Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh.
According to People Not Politicians data, enough valid signatures have been collected in the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth congressional districts. As of Tuesday, the Seventh District reportedly has 18,404 of the 18,499 necessary signatures.
Enough petitions need to be verified in six of Missouri's eight congressional districts for the petition to be put on the ballot.
"The fact is, 305,000 Missourians signed a petition to their government asking for redress," People Not Politicians Director Richard Von Glahn said. "It doesn't matter if we need all of those signatures to be reviewed in order to qualify the referendum, all signatures should be reviewed just as a matter of course as to how the government interacts with its citizens."
People Not Politicians filed the initial suit against Hoskins back in September, with the case seeing delays and moving through judges.
The suit was last put on hold by Limbaugh in December until all collected signatures were verified by local election authorities.
People Not Politicians argues that the Secretary of State's Office received and rejected several referendum samples. Von Glahn was later told by Hoskins that the samples were rejected because Gov. Mike Kehoe had not yet approved the new map, and not due to content issues in the form.
Hoskins later approved the exact ballot language that was previously rejected, and the group then claimed that by not approving the referendum language earlier, Hoskins failed to follow Missouri open records laws.
The state argues that not having the governor's approval of the map was a valid reason for Hoskins not to approve the language.
The more than 100,000 signatures that are on hold were collected before Oct. 14, which was when Hoskins certified the referendum petition language. Von Glahn adds that from People Not Politicians' understanding, all pages, including those from before Oct. 14, should have been given to local election authorities for review.
"They are holding hostage the signatures of hundreds of thousands of Missourians," von Glahn said. "We should remember what these signatures are; these are petitions from individuals to their government for redress of a wrong."
The redistricting plan was established through House Bill 1, which passed during a summer 2025 special session. The new map splits the Fifth District in Kansas City, which has historically been a Democratic stronghold.
Kehoe referred to the plan as "Missouri First" as Republican lawmakers sought to redraw lines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Critics have described the map as gerrymandering and noted that it is expected to provide Republicans with an additional lawmaker to represent the state.
If the petition is approved with valid signatures, Missouri voters will be able to decide on the map during the November election.
Limbaugh did not make a ruling and set a new case review date for April 7 at 9 a.m.
ABC 17 News reached out to the Secretary of State's Office for comment, but did not hear back.
