Initiative Petition Changes Clear Hurdle

BY MADELINE SHANNON

Missouri news network

JEFFERSON CITY — Efforts to push forward changes to the state’s initiative petition process succeeded Tuesday, with a Missouri House committee granting initial approval to an amended resolution that would make it more difficult to amend the state constitution.

The key change in the resolution would require a majority of votes statewide and in the majority of Missouri’s congressional districts to approve a constitutional amendment.

The version of the resolution approved by the committee contains additional provisions restricting foreign governments and political parties from trying to sway the results of initiative petition efforts, something that’s already federal law. Another provision would bar people who are not U.S. citizens and residents of Missouri from voting in elections. Both provisions are already federal law.

Opponents of the amendments debated Tuesday, calling the added provisions “ballot candy” because they are attractive proposals to many voters who may fail to read the underlying changes being proposed.

“So much was done to remove this, and to come over here and to slap it back in, I think it’s outrageous,” said Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia. “I don’t think we need to be filling these (Senate Joint Resolutions) with ballot candy. It’s a problem in this building and enough is enough.”

If the resolution passes through the legislature, voters would be asked to approve the changes to the initiative process.

Many Republicans have pushed initiative petition bills this session because of a citizen-led effort to place a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution on the November ballot.

The representative who introduced the amendment, Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, said he was assigned to introduce the amendment by Rep. Peggy McGaugh, R-Carrollton, the House Elections and Elected Officials Committee chair.

Banderman said he contacted the staff of the resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, when working to add the provisions to the resolution.

“I think the process of making our initiative petition process better and using congressional districts is similar to the way we do it at the federal level,” Banderman said. “I believe the heart of both those issues is the protection of the minority vote. I believe the congressional district is the best approach to making sure when we adjust the framework of our state governance, that the case is made across the state and not just in a few counties.”

Some of the provisions added to the resolution this week are similar to provisions that were previously removed. Democrats only ended a filibuster on the resolution when the ballot candy provisions were taken out.

Coleman said she wanted to review the House amendments before commenting.

Rep. Joe Adams, D-University City, was the most outspoken opponent of the new amendment Tuesday, saying a concurrent majority would deny citizens their voice.

“My family, my predecessors, fought and died for that right of the franchise,” Adams said. “This is an attempt to get rid of that right.”

Other efforts to pass bills that would increase the threshold for a constitutional amendment were introduced in the House this year, with two effectively dead and another still moving forward.