Missouri House sends initiative petition bill back to Senate with ‘ballot candy’ reinstated

Legislation seeking to make it harder to change Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process was approved by the Missouri House on Thursday, sending it back to the Senate for a possible showdown between Republicans and Democrats over “ballot candy.” 

The bill was initially approved earlier this year after Democrats ended their 21-hour filibuster in exchange for the removal of “ballot candy” provisions — referring to unrelated additions to a ballot measure designed to win voters who are skeptical of a proposal’s main focus. 

On Thursday, the House added language to the bill that would ask Missourians if they want to change the constitution to define legal voters as citizens of the United States as well as whether they want to prohibit foreign entities from sponsoring initiative petitions. 

Democrats called the additions “unnecessary” and “deceptive.”

“This feels to me like another situation where this body is being asked to bend to the will of the Senate,” said state Rep. Eric Woods, a Democrat from Kansas City. “We are putting this bad stuff back on to send it back over there and watch the Senate explode again as if we aren’t already in enough turmoil in this building.” 

After the Senate vote in February, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Colemen, a Republican from Arnold and the bill’s sponsor, asked the House Committee on Elections and Elected Officials  to reinstate the “ballot candy.”

The committee complied. After an hour-long debate Thursday morning, the bill ultimately passed, with House Majority Leader Jon Patterson of Lee’s Summit the lone “no” vote among his Republican colleagues.

State Rep. Alex Riley, a Republican from Springfield who sponsored the bill in the House, said the amendment, if adopted by the people, would create “a broader geographic consensus from across the state.”

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Citizen-led initiative petitions currently require signatures from 8% of voters in six of the state’s eight congressional districts. To pass once on the ballot, a statewide vote of 50% plus one is required — a simple majority vote.

The version of the legislation passed Thursday would require that constitutional amendments pass by both a simple majority of votes statewide and a majority of votes in at least a majority of the votes in Missouri’s congressional districts. It would also require the General Assembly have the approval of at least four-sevenths of the members in each chamber to make any modifications to a citizen-led constitutional amendment within two years of when it goes into effect.

An analysis by The Independent found that under the concurrent majority standard being proposed, as few as 23% of voters could defeat a ballot measure. This was done by looking at the majority in the four districts with the fewest number of voters in 2020 and 2022.

Republicans argued this is about engaging all voters, no matter if they live in an urban or rural area. 

“Surely the ratification of something as sacred as the framework to our governance as a state should require something greater than just simply a simple majority statewide,” said state Rep. Brad Banderman, a Republican from St. Clair.

State Rep. Jamie Gragg, a Republican from Ozark, said the legislation would give his constituents in Christian County more voice.

“I have a very out-in-the-country district. My people do not have a vote,” Gragg said. “This will make the people in my district count, because right now they don’t.”

State Rep. Peter Merideth, a Democrat from St. Louis, said under the current framework of one person one vote, Gragg was flat-out wrong.

“If he thinks that it was St. Louis and Kansas City that elected our governor or elected Josh Hawley, I’m sorry he’s not paying attention,” Merideth said. “Or he’s just lying.” 

On Thursday, state Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democrat from Kansas City, brought the conversation back to abortion. The issue has been an undercurrent in this year’s initiative petition debate.

She recalled the end of session last year, when House Speaker Dean Plocher, a Republican from Des Peres, said his party expected an attempt to legalize abortion would land on the ballot and pass. 

So far, Plocher has been right. A campaign to legalize abortion up until fetal viability in Missouri has raised millions of dollars as they race toward a May 5 deadline to gather the 171,000 necessary signatures to end up on the statewide ballot.  

The main champions of the legislation seeking to change the initiative petition process have been anti-abortion groups. 

Democrats remain adamant voters will see through the “ballot candy” if the initiative petition legislation makes it to the ballot.

“Mark my words, this will be defeated. Missourians will say no to minority rule,” Nurrenbern said of the initiative petition bill. “Our folks in suburban districts are going to be coming out in record numbers to make sure that all of you know that they’re not going to be tricked.”

In the meantime, Nurrenbern said she hopes that when the bill reaches the Senate floor, “it just all implodes.”

This story was updated at 9:20 a.m. to reflect that citizen-led initiative petitions currently require signatures from 8% of voters in six of the state’s eight congressional districts.