KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics in Kansas, Missouri and at the local level. Share your story idea with Charlie.
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Missouri voters will decide whether to make it more difficult to pass citizen-led initiative petitions that amend the state constitution.
A yes vote on Amendment 4 would change the requirement for ballot measures to pass. Instead of requiring a statewide simple majority of 50% plus one, Missouri would become the first state to use a concurrent majority. This means voters in each of the state’s eight congressional districts would have to pass the measure.
The rule would only apply to constitutional amendment initiatives that citizens place on the ballot through the petition process, not measures the state legislature places on the ballot.
In recent years, voters have approved recreational marijuana, abortion access, expanded Medicaid, and sports betting as constitutional amendments through the signature-gathering referendum process.
Had the concurrent majority rule been in place, all of those measures would have failed, according to Missourian for Fair Governance and its Protect MOjority Rule campaign.
“This is a power grab. The politicians want you to surrender this right, this power, this freedom. They want you to surrender it,” said Scott Charton, a spokesperson for Missourian for Fair Governance, which is funded by the Missouri Association of Realtors.
The president of the Missouri Farm Bureau wrote an op-ed in Ag Daily endorsing a yes vote on the amendment and is supporting the group Protect Election Integrity.
He said special interest groups in other states have used the initiative petition process to pass ranching and farming regulations under the guise of animal rights.
He also pointed out voters in the heavily populated cities of Kansas City and St. Louis often carry these ballot initiatives to passage.
“So many times rural voices are left out of the conversation until they get to the ballot box,” Hawkins said. “This ensures important issues of consequence for our state constitution truly reflect a broad consensus of all Missourians.”
Charton and other opponents believe Amendment 4 takes away the one person, one vote aspect of direct democracy. Voters in one congressional district could defeat a measure even if 100% of voters in the seven others approved it.
“I think they’re trying to make things more difficult for people,” said Derria Young, a voter who opposes Amendment 4.
Josh Embrey said the current system gives certain voters too much power.
“That’s not majority rule, that’s mob rule,” he said.
Amendment 4 needs a simple, statewide majority for approval.
Below is the official ballot language.
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
- Modify current requirements that a statewide majority of voters may approve initiative petitions to amend the constitution;
- Require a majority of voters in each congressional district to approve initiative petitions to amend the constitution; and
- Make available to each voter the full text of initiative petitions with their ballot?
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