Missouri senators propose raising the bar for initiative petitions
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Some Missouri Senate Republicans are looking to tighten requirements for initiative petitions -- measures that get on the ballot through gathering voter signatures -- with Senate Joint Resolution 10, SJR 11, SJR 30 and SJR 47.
The bills, sponsored by Senators Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove), Jason Bean (R-Holcomb), Ben Brown (R-Washington) and Jill Carter (R-Joplin), were discussed in the Senate's Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee Monday.
Currently, petitions for changes to the Missouri Constitution and new laws require signatures equal to 8% and 5% of legal voters in two-thirds, or five out of eight, state congressional districts, respectively.
If passed, SJR 11 proposes for initiative petition requirements to almost double, increasing to 15% for constitution amendments and 10% for law proposals. SJR 47 would also increase the five out of eight district requirement to six out of eight districts.
SJR 10 has similar wording in support of the previous resolutions and SJR 30 wants to add a law that makes it unlawful for petitions to be sponsored by foreign parties or groups.
In Missouri's constitution, there is already a rule that makes it illegal for campaign and political parties and committees to accept foreign contributions of any kind.
Under the proposed bill, required signatures in the Third Congressional District would increase from around 33,000 to around 62,000 for proposed amendments and from around 21,000 signatures to around 41,000 for proposed laws. The Fourth Congressional District would increase from around 29,000 signatures to 55,000 for amendments and around 18,000 to 37,000 for laws.
Those districts cover large parts of Mid-Missouri.
Supporters of the bills who testified included Campaign Life Missouri, Missouri First and the Missouri Farm Bureau. Those in favor argue that the resolutions level the playing field for smaller districts.
"Signatures only have to be gathered in six out of the eight congressional districts, it's usually my congressional district, the eighth, and your district, Mr. Chairman (Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe), Number six, that special interest groups and issue petitions sponsors don't visit to collect signatures," Bean said. "I think it's fair that signatures should be collected in all congressional districts."
"Some say this is democracy allowing people to vote by a simple majority, however, we are not a democracy. We're a constitutional republic, and that's the citizen's vote," said Senate Candidate David Robertson. "Citizens do not vote on the laws, we vote for representatives who vote in the laws."
During the 2024 general election, three initiative petitions that went into effect were for legalizing sports gambling (Amendment 2), increasing the minimum wage and sick leave (Prop A) and removing Missouri's ban on abortion (Amendment 3).
If the proposed bill was in effect during the 2024 election, only St. Louis' First Congressional District would have had enough signatures to put Amendment 3 on the ballot. Even under current initiative petition rules, most districts only exceeded the requirement by around 5,000 votes.
All petitions in the 2024 election, however, did meet the six out of eight congressional district threshold.
Committee member Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern (D-Kansas City) voiced concern over the increased numbers.
"That is an almost impossible threshold and again, I think it would lead to a large delay in tallying total votes to see if something had passed or not," Nurrenbern said.
Bev Ehlen, a representative of Liberty Link Missouri, voiced support for the bills but also raised concern over SJR 11.
"We're not opposed to having more representation, but the more signatures makes it more difficult for true citizens to actually get something on the ballot," Ehlen said.
Opponents of the bill included the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, the League of Women Voters of Missouri, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.
"The thing that has marked the success of our century-long Citizen Initiative process is that majority rules," Director of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition Denise Lieberman said, "That's how we elect representatives to sit in this body, that is how we vote on things that citizens care about, these measures are particularly important to allow citizens to raise issues themselves."
"We shouldn't be saying that, "Rural voters, good, suburban voters, bad, or exurban voters, good, urban voters bad,' every single voter should be treated equally," ACLU representative Jeff Smith said.
