Missouri voters and lawmakers clash over who should be able to initiate constitutional amendments

By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters and the lawmakers they elect could be headed for a clash at the ballot box over the power to set public policy.

Citizen activists rallying Wednesday at the Missouri Capitol kicked off an initiative petition drive for a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder for state lawmakers to reverse or revise citizen-led initiatives approved by voters.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers at the Capitol for a special session about redistricting are proposing their own constitutional amendment that would make it harder for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to pass.

The conflicting measures, which both could appear on the 2026 ballot, highlight the growing tension in Missouri and elsewhere between the will of voters and their elected representatives.

“I want our legislators to stop overturning the will of the people,” said Lauren Bakker, a suburban St. Louis resident who was among the first to sign the initiative petition backed by the Respect Missouri Voters Coalition.

The initiative pushes back against Missouri lawmakers, who recently took steps to repeal voter-approved initiatives on abortion rights and paid sick leave and imposed more requirements on ballot initiative campaigns.

Nearly 150 bills were introduced across 15 state legislatures this year seeking to make it harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot or win approval by voters — nearly double the amount of just two years ago, according to the Fairness Project, a progressive group that has backed dozens of ballot initiatives in states.

This year’s new laws include one in Republican-led Florida that allows felony charges against individuals if they collect more than 25 signed ballot petitions other than their own or those of immediate family members, and don’t register with the state as a petition circulator. Meanwhile, the Republican-led legislatures in North Dakota and South Dakota referred measures to a future ballot proposing a 60% public vote threshold to approve constitutional amendments.

“Lawmakers have consistently around the country enacted restrictions on the citizens’ ability to use direct democracy as a check and balance on their power,” said Dane Waters, founder of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California.

Some state lawmakers contend that it’s too easy for citizen activists backed by wealthy out-of-state funders to use ballot initiatives to insert controversial and complex policies into state constitutions.

“To change our constitution should be harder,” said Missouri state Rep. Bill Lucas, a Republican.

Missouri lawmakers seek a tougher threshold to amend the constitution

About half of the 50 states allow people to bypass their legislatures by gathering signatures to place proposals on the ballot. That includes 16 where proposed constitutional amendments can be placed directly on the ballot by citizen petitions.

In most of those states, a simple majority of statewide voters is all that’s needed to approve constitutional amendments. But Colorado requires a 55% vote for most measures, and Florida a 60% vote.

A proposal passed Tuesday by the Missouri House, and now pending in the Senate, would require citizen-initiated amendments to receive a majority vote in each of the state’s eight congressional districts to pass. Amendments placed on the ballot by the Legislature would need only a statewide majority, as is currently the case. No other state has a dual standard like that.

Critics say it would be almost impossible for initiative supporters to meet.

“In effect, it’s saying we’re going to kill the initiative process,” said Liz Kester, of Columbia, who is helping with the Respect Missouri Voters initiative.

Democratic lawmakers, who are a minority in Missouri, also raised concerns.

“I can’t even get eight out of eight of my family members to decide what we want to cook at our family reunion, let alone get eight congressional districts to all be in line,” said state Rep. Marty Joe Murray, of St. Louis.

Republican lawmakers contend that their proposal would force initiatives to win support from both rural and urban areas and from congressional districts represented by both Republicans and Democrats.

“If you’re going to change the constitution of Missouri, you will have to have broad consensus,” said Republican state Rep. Ed Lewis, who is sponsoring the measure backed by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.

Citizen activists seek to rein in legislative powers

On Wednesday, the Respect Missouri Voters Coalition erected a tent outside the Capitol and began gathering petition signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar anything other than a simple statewide majority vote from being required to pass initiatives. The measure also would bar the Legislature from increasing how many signatures are needed for initiatives to qualify for the ballot, or taking actions that would weaken citizens’ initiative and referendum rights.

The proposal also would prohibit the Legislature from changing or repealing citizen-initiated laws or constitutional amendments unless 80% of House and Senate members vote to refer the revisions to a statewide ballot.

The Legislature this year repealed a voter-approved law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave and referred to the ballot a new amendment seeking to undo an abortion-rights amendment passed by voters last November.

John Billman, of Columbia, said he signed initiative petitions for both of those measures. On Wednesday, he signed the Respect Missouri Voters initiative because he said he was tired of the Legislature “weaseling around it, passing laws in some way that undo what the people want.”

Supporters want to collect about 300,000 signatures, which would be about three-quarters more than it would need to qualify for the ballot, said Benjamin Singer, co-founder of the Respect Missouri Voters Coalition.

If they succeed, the measure could appear on the ballot alongside the Legislature’s proposal, which is titled as the “Protect Missouri Voters” amendment. That could create some confusion — and tough choices — for voters.

“The Legislature is proving our point. The politicians in Jefferson City are shameless in their attempts to trick voters into taking away our freedoms,” Singer said.