Missouri initiative to deter overturning of statewide votes gets needed signatures
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- Respect MO Voters says they have over 300,000 signatures and qualify for the ballot.
- Amendment would require an 80% legislative vote to overturn citizen-led changes to law.
- The measure mandates fair, unbiased ballot summaries for citizen-led initiatives.
Respect MO Voters, an initiative petition campaign aimed at preventing politicians from rolling back changes to state law initiated by voters, exceeded 300,000 signatures on Thursday, according to organizers.
At Ophelia’s Restaurant and Inn in downtown Independence, co-founder and campaign director of Respect MO Voters, Benjamin Singer, was on stage when the campaign passed the 300,000 mark in a room full of supporters.
“We’re not done yet, but we’ve made amazing progress, and we’ve done the hardest parts,” Peters told the group.
The group has already gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, Singer said, but is continuing their effort to serve as a buffer for any signatures that may be thrown out.
Singer said that he believes that the campaign is one of the largest volunteer signature campaigns in recent memory. The organization will direct its almost 1,700 volunteers to gather another 40,000 signatures before the deadline on May 3.
Once signatures are turned in, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ office will be tasked with verifying whether organizers collected enough signatures to reach the ballot.
It’s not the only ballot initiative with a groundswell of support. In December, People Not Politicians delivered 305,000 signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office.
The ballot initiative, if passed, would add provisions to the state constitution requiring fair, unbiased summaries for ballot measures and require an 80% vote from the legislature to overturn citizen-led changes to state law.
The measure may appear on the same ballot as Amendment 4, which would make a citizen-led initiative petition significantly harder to pass.
Washington University Law professor Gregory Magarian said he believes the Protect MO Voters’ amendment would achieve the aims of preventing ballot language tinkering or overturning laws enacted via initiative petitions.
“It is extensive, it is thorough. It’s even a little redundant in places, but it’s pretty emphatic, and I think the standards that it sets are quite stringent,” Magarian said.
John and Mary McCrae, a husband and wife duo that’s collected over 3,000 signatures, said they stationed themselves anywhere they thought people might gather. For months, they’ve been going to protests, concert venues and convention centers, asking people to sign petitions.
It’s their first foray into signature gathering, and they’re both among the top-five signature gatherers in the Kansas City region.
“I was frustrated because of what I’ve been seeing on TV and reading in the news, and I’m going, what else can I do to help my community and the state?” John McCrae said.
“We’re at a place where we know that something’s got to be done. This is something we can do, just to speak up as a citizen,” Mary McCrae said.
The frustrations range for people who sign on, according to several signature gathers that spoke to The Star. The state legislature has, at times, overturned citizen-led reforms shortly after they became law.
This year, Missouri voters will be asked to overturn the constitutional abortion protections they approved in 2024. In January, the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a law that would’ve restricted judges from rewriting misleading ballot questions.
Last year, the state rolled back paid sick leave provisions passed with a citizen-led initiative petition.
A common complaint at Ophelia’s on Thursday was the overturning of protections for puppies in 2011. Citizens passed an amendment mandating health and safety measures for large dog breeders, which lawmakers promptly overturned.
Missouri has ranked first in the Humane Society’s “horrible hundred” report highlighting problem puppy mill breeders for 13 straight years.
Supporters of the Respect MO Voters initiative stressed that while Republican supermajorities overturned laws recently, Democrats are just as likely to overturn voter-approved measures if the shoe is on the other foot.
“It doesn’t matter which political parties are in the majority control; you give them a little time and they want to continue with majority control, so they don’t want to make certain public reforms,” said Bob Johnson, a former Republican State Senator and Lee’s Summit City council member.
The Protect MO Voters measure is on the ballot in the same year a separate proposal, Amendment 4, would place higher restrictions on direct democracy. It would require laws passed via the initiative petition process to receive a majority vote in all 8 of Missouri’s congressional districts.
If passed, Amendment 4 would allow just 5% of voters to block measures that pass with overwhelming support. In March, a judge rewrote the fair ballot language for Amendment 4, saying that it included language about banning foreign donations for campaigns and signature fraud was already in the current law.
“Our measure is very popular with voters, and Amendment 4 is unpopular, but their deceptive ballot language means that we absolutely will have to fight with everything we have,” Singer said.
If both amendments pass, it could make for a novel court battle, Magarian said.
“It seems like a pretty unusual problem to have two constitutional amendments passed by ballot measures in the same election, one of which says x and one of which says you can’t do x,” Magarian said.
