Judge in Missouri redistricting lawsuit will not make ruling until signature verification is complete
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The judge in a lawsuit surrounding Missouri’s new redistricting proposal has opted to not rule on the case until collected signatures are verified.
Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh wrote in a Friday decision that People Not Politicians had submitted more than 300,000 signatures to Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to certify in their effort to get the new congressional map on the state ballot.
“Currently, to the court’s knowledge, no signatures have been officially accepted or rejected. Conceivably, this could be enough signatures to place the referendum on the ballot thereby mooting the issues presented in the case at bar,” Limbaugh wrote.
“Therefore, the court will hold this case in abeyance until the requisite number of signatures have been certified or up until enough signatures have been rejected so as to prevent plaintiffs’ referendum from appearing on the ballot. It is further ordered that Secretary Hoskins preserve all signatures filed with his office, whether those signatures are accepted or rejected, until further order by this court.
People Not Politicians issued a statement showing support for the judge’s decision.
“Judge Limbaugh recognized that the key issue right now is whether the submitted signatures are certified. No signatures have been accepted or rejected yet, and the court ordered that they all be preserved. We agree with the judge — let’s check the signatures,” People Not Politicians spokesperson Elsa Rainey told ABC 17 News in a statement.
Arguments in the trial earlier this week included PNP claiming Hoskins failed to follow Missouri open records laws by not approving the referendum language. The state argued because the governor hadn’t signed the new congressional map into law during the initial submission of the language, he couldn’t approve it.
Hoskins and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway claimed on Thursday that the new map is cemented in state law.
A federal judge earlier this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state that sought to block the new map from appearing on the ballot.
Republican lawmakers had suggested redrawing lines sooner than the state’s typical period of every 10 years after it was requested by President Donald Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Critics of the map have called it gerrymandering and if it is passed, it is expected to give Republicans an additional lawmaker to represent the state. The area at the center of the discussion is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver.
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