Missouri bill raising ballot measure threshold includes delay for legal weed campaign

The Missouri House on Thursday passed legislation raising the bar for voters to amend the state constitution, but with a delayed implementation date to allow a marijuana legalization campaign to get on the ballot this fall without being subject to the changes.

The bill, which was sent to the Senate on a 98-53 vote, would raise the threshold for passing a constitutional amendment from a majority vote to two-thirds. It would also increase by more than 100,000 the number of signatures required to place initiatives on the ballot.

The measures are part of a series of election law changes Republicans have renewed their efforts to pass this year, including the requirement of a photo ID to vote. The House passed the proposals easily last year but the measures were among several items that failed to clear a divided state Senate.

If passed by the General Assembly, the bill raising the vote and signature requirements, itself a constitutional amendment, would go on a statewide ballot. But it would be subject to the current rules of only requiring a majority vote to pass.

And the legislation includes a clause delaying the changes to next January, which would ensure it wouldn’t affect any ballot measures until the 2024 elections.

Rep. Adam Schwadron, a St. Charles Republican, added the date in committee last month, explaining if the governor sets the vote for the Aug. 2 primary date, the changes would apply to November ballot measures. He said it would be unfair to apply the changes to campaigns that are already working to get on the ballot.

Schwadron told Rep. Jered Taylor, a Republic Republican, he was asked to change the date by campaigners of a marijuana legalization initiative.

“Who asked you to make this change?” Taylor said Thursday on the House floor. “Did you come up with this on your own?”

“It was some people that are currently working on the recreational marijuana,” Schwadron said.

Two campaigns are gathering signatures to put a constitutional amendment legalizing recreational marijuana on November’s ballot. The more prominent campaign, Legal Missouri 2022, is backed by much of the state’s established medical marijuana industry.

Voters passed a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana in 2018 with just shy of two-thirds of the vote.

Asked if he pushed for the delayed date, Legal Missouri campaign manager John Payne wrote only that “I can confirm that the campaign is actively monitoring various pieces of legislation in the Missouri Capitol that seek to upend the initiative petition process.”

“We strongly believe in the rights of Missouri voters to directly bring about good public policy through a process that has served the state well for decades,” Payne said.

Schwadron’s concession caused some Republicans who were otherwise supportive of the changes to be conflicted.

Taylor chaired a government oversight committee that two years ago scrutinized Missouri’s licensing process over allegations that a vendor had inconsistently scored the applications of the hundreds of businesses vying to grow and sell medical marijuana.

He called it a “corrupt system” and noted the Legal Missouri proposal would allow current license-holders to have the first chances to convert their licenses to include recreational sales.

“They’re writing this language so that it benefits them,” Taylor said. “They want it to happen in January because they want to be able to continue the corruption and vote for it in November and allow it to go on the ballot in November and have a lot easier path.”

He said he supported the bill itself, but ultimately was one of seven Republicans who voted no.

Democrats have decried the heightened vote thresholds as a Republican attempt to restrict voters from passing ballot measures that lawmakers don’t like.

Liberal groups have had success in recent years using the ballot box to enact policies blocked by the Republican-dominated legislature. They include repeal of a lawmaker-passed right-to-work law and raising the state minimum wage. Some are passed as constitutional amendments, such as the 2020 vote to expand Medicaid eligibility, which are harder for lawmakers to undo.

Proponents say the state constitution should not be used to make policy.

“I thought we had too many outside interests coming to Missouri and changing our constitution,” sponsor Mike Henderson, a Bonne Terre Republican, said.

Rep. Kevin Windham, a Hillsdale Democrat, raised concerns that the measure is backed by a Florida-based policy group called the Opportunity Solutions Project, a 501(c)(4) which does not have to disclose its donors. It has worked on initiative-petitions in several states and fought Medicaid expansion efforts.

“It’s just gonna make it where exclusively big-money interests are playing in our elections,” Windham said.