Clean Missouri proponents sue to have lawmaker-approved repeal question rewritten

Opponents of an effort to repeal voter-approved redistricting measures sued Missouri lawmakers in circuit court Monday, calling the summary language of the new constitutional amendment voters will see at the ballot box “insufficient and unfair.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in Cole County Circuit Court, are citizens who collected signatures for the ballot initiative dubbed Clean Missouri, which was approved by 62 percent of Missouri voters in 2018. The new method would have a nonpartisan state demographer draw legislative district prioritizing competitiveness.

Republican lawmakers passed a joint resolution last week, which would ask Missourians whether to approve a constitutional amendment repealing the Clean Missouri changes on the statewide ballot later this year. It also included ethics provisions like lowering the limit for lobbyists gifts by $5 and reducing contribution limits to state senators by $100.

The summary of the ballot question begins with provisions banning lobbyist gifts and lowering campaign contribution limits, instead of the redistricting changes.

It reads: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: Ban all lobbyist gifts to legislators and their employees; Reduce legislative campaign contribution limits; and Create citizen-led independent bipartisan commissions to draw state legislative districts based on one person, one vote, minority voter protection, compactness, competitiveness, fairness, and other criteria?”

The lawsuit lays out why Clean Missouri proponents believe the summary is “misleading.”

“A top House Republican warned his colleagues last week that SJR38 was riddled with ‘errors’. He is correct,” Chuck Hatfield, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “I understand why the politicians pushing this amendment may not want to talk about their true intentions, but the law requires a fair and accurate description of their proposed constitutional amendment to be sent to voters.”

The lawsuit asks a judge to vacate the summary and have it rewritten.

Clean Missouri proponents offered the following summary in the lawsuit: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: Eliminate the office of Nonpartisan State Demographer, currently responsible for drawing draft legislative district maps, and give map drawing responsibility to Commissions comprised of partisan representatives; and Make partisan fairness and competitiveness the least important factors when drawing district maps?”

Usually on ballot summary language challenges, a judge will craft the language if they find it inaccurate.

The bill sponsor said Clean Missouri voters in 2018 were fooled by a campaign that camouflaged changes to the redistricting process by pairing them with popular ethics reforms such as limiting lobbyist gifts to lawmakers.

“This is a partisan train wreck that I believe should go to the voters of Missouri,” state Rep. Dean Plocher, a St. Louis County Republican, said in the last days of the legislative session.

The amendment would revert to Missouri’s old method of drawing districts.

Under the old method, every 10 years following the census Missouri’s 197 legislative districts were drawn by commissions appointed by Republican and Democratic committees and the governor.

While it is unlikely to change Republican control of the Missouri General Assembly, the new process will probably increase Democrats’ chances of winning elections and cut into Republicans’ supermajorities in the state House and Senate.

This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 5:25 PM.