A lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to change the ballot language on a proposal that would severely limit amendments offered through the initiative petition process.
The lawsuit was filed against Secretary of State Denny Hoskins by attorneys representing Missourians for Fair Governance, a campaign committee created by Missouri Realtors.
“The citizen initiative process is a power Missouri voters approved for themselves more than a century ago, which our association has been able to use to fight for Missouri homeowners and families,” Missouri Realtors President Bobbi Howe said in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
The group argues that the ballot summary statement written by Hoskins for House Joint Resolution 3 “prejudicially and impermissibly” fails to make clear that the resolution would make it nearly impossible to amend Missouri’s Constitution through a citizen-led initiative.
HJR 3 would require amendments proposed by initiative petition to receive a majority vote in each of the eight congressional districts instead of the current requirement of a simple statewide majority.
The approval threshold for state constitutional amendments introduced by the General Assembly would continue to only require a simple statewide majority vote to pass. The lawsuit claims the ballot summary also fails to make this idea clear to voters.
The lawsuit argues that HJR 3’s summary statement fails to tell voters that “their votes would be counted differently, based upon the congressional district in which they live.”
They said the measure gives voters from less-populated rural districts greater influence over the outcome than voters in urban districts. Indeed, voters in just one of the state’s congressional districts could thwart the will of voters in the rest of the state by voting down a proposed amendment.
Another key point in the lawsuit has to do with “ballot candy,” things included in a measure that don’t change state law but are topics attractive to voters and are included for the purpose of winning votes. Attorneys say the summary doesn’t tell voters that three provisions of HJR 3 are already part of state law.
Provisions already in law are those banning “foreign nationals and foreign adversaries” from donating money to ballot issue campaigns, punishing petition signature fraud as a crime and requiring public hearings before an initiative petition can be put on the ballot.
“Many Missouri citizens across the political spectrum are alarmed about this attempt to trick our citizens into surrendering a right to the initiative petition process,” Scott Charton, spokesman for Missourians for Fair Governance, said in an email.
In addition to including provisions already in law, the lawsuit says HJR 3’s ballot summary intentionally lists those provisions higher than the major changes, “to conceal the central purpose of HJR 3, which is to limit citizens’ ability to approve citizen-led initiative petitions to amend the Constitution.”
“Missouri Realtors opposed HJR 3 while it was being considered by lawmakers, and it has been our policy to defend our citizens’ initiative petition process,” said Larry Keating, chairman of Missourians for Fair Governance and former president of Missouri Realtors.
“Voters deserve clarity on the ballot when they are being asked to surrender their long-held rights and make some votes count less than others,” he said.
Under a new state law, if a judge agrees with the complaints in the lawsuit, Hoskins will be given up to three opportunities to rewrite the ballot language.
