Missouri officials know they’re muddying the waters over redistricting maps | Opinion

Misssouri state Sen. Rick Brattin’s June 3 guest commentary in The Kansas City Star was, in my opinion, only partially correct and truthful. The Missouri State Supreme Court made two rulings on May 12, and of course Sen. Brattin and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins — along with unelected Attorney General Catherine Hanaway — consistently and loudly make misleading statements about those rulings.

The court ruled essentially that the General Assembly may gerrymander the Missouri congressional districts whenever they want, and therefore the new map may be utilized. However, the second ruling clearly states that the new map may not be utilized until the secretary of state verifies the overwhelming number of Missourians’ signatures lawfully collected and submitted contesting the gerrymandered map via a ballot in either the August or November elections.

The Missouri Supreme Court judges clearly stated that they do not know which map to use, because if the secretary of state verifies the signatures, then the old 2022 map will be used — since the signatures were submitted before the legislature passed the new map. Only if the secretary of state declares that the signatures are not lawful will the new map be used. Hoskins’ problem is that he cannot honestly and legally declare the signatures unlawful because far more signatures were submitted than were needed to qualify for an election ballot. And we, the people who signed the initiative, know that he knows he has more than enough lawful signatures.

Hoskins has actually already indicated on his website that more than enough signatures were submitted.

In addition, he and Brattin hope that Amendment 4 will pass in August because it rewrites the requirements needed for a citizen-led petition initiative to be approved to make a ballot — requirements that would almost certainly ensure that no petition initiative will ever appear on a future ballot. This amendment would render the current initiatives ineligible in near elections. In reality, this is changing the rules in the middle of the process.

Brattin and his friends are misleading the Missouri people. Brattin’s height of irresponsibility includes threats to county clerks, who are honest in their confusion about how to administer elections. They are only mirroring the confusion of the state Supreme Court, which cannot rule because the secretary of state refuses to verify the signatures in a timely manner. More important, by Hoskins refusing to do his job before Aug. 4, the outcome could be the invalidation of that election, thereby forcing needless chaos and cost to taxpayers to hold another election — not to mention the tax dollars he will spend to defend himself against the lawsuits he will needlessly incur.

So no, Sen. Brattin, the Star’s journalist Toriano Porter did not err in his reporting. You are the one trying to mislead the public because you will not acknowledge the state Supreme Court’s second ruling. I think you and your cohorts owe everyone an apology for your actions.

I firmly believe that the current political leadership and legislature, in their arrogance, have forgotten that they work for the people.

Robert Lawrence is a professor of music emeritus from the University of Central Missouri. He lives in Warrensburg.