The future of the initiative petition process and how it might affect Missouri democracy

ST. JOSEPH, MO (News-Press NOW)-- Respect Missouri Voters, a non-partisan organization, is pushing back on legislative efforts to impose more restrictions on the state's initiative petition process.

"It began around the first of 2025," said Nancy Zeliff, a volunteer. "We currently have over 6,700 volunteers statewide, and we have around 1,900 individuals ready to collect signatures on our citizen-driven petition."

The organization is currently working on three key initiatives:

• Banning the state legislature and politicians in Jefferson City from overturning the will of Missouri voters.
• Prohibiting "ballot candy," a term used for misleading language in ballot initiatives.
• Preserving the current initiative petition process

"There's a law that was passed and signed by our governor in April of this year, and it was SB 22," Zeliff said. "Its nickname is called 'Let Politicians Lie', because what's important for the Missouri voters is to have accurate ballot language on our ballots when we vote traditionally in a November election, because that's what the voters read and understand."

Two issues that have sparked concern for the group include Amendment 3 and Proposition A.

Before the Missouri Supreme Court verified that abortion would appear on the November ballot, campaigns had to collect signatures from 8% of voters in six of Missouri's eight congressional districts.

In September 2024, in a 4-3 ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court allowed Amendment 3, known as the "Right to Reproductive Freedom" initiative, to remain on the November 2024 ballot.

The majority opinion stated that requiring ballot initiatives to list every statute that might be repealed or affected would be overly burdensome and make constitutional amendments unworkable.

In October 2024, the Court reaffirmed its decision, ruling the abortion amendment met constitutional form requirements. It also determined that petition sponsors were not legally obligated to list every potentially affected law.

Now, SB 22, signed by Governor Mike Kehoe in April 2025, extends the word limit of ballot summaries, expands the Attorney General's authority and gives the state legislature more control over ballot language.

“If the Attorney General’s office or the legislature are the ones writing the ballot language, and not the initiator of the petition, we fear what we call 'ballot candy', misleading language,” Zeliff added.

Zeliff said with the push back on these pieces of legislation, it's important for Missouri voters to always speak out and pay attention to legislators in office.

"We need 300,000 signatures as amendment three for example is collected," Zeliff said. " We hope there's around 175 valid and verified signatures to get it on the ballot for November 2026."