Attorneys for a group attempting to undo Missouri's congressional redistricting are asking a circuit judge to rule against the Secretary of State's plan to not count some signatures on a proposed referendum on the issue.
Lawyers gathered Monday in a Cole County Circuit Court to make their arguments.
Judge Christopher Limbaugh did not issue an immediate ruling. However, one could come as early as this week as the signatures for the referendum are expected to be turned in this week.
People Not Politicians, the group behind a referendum to overturn the new map, is suing Secretary of State Denny Hoskins over how he's handled the referendum process.
According to the lawsuit, that handling includes rejecting a referendum petition sample sheet because Gov. Mike Kehoe had not yet signed the map into law at the time.
Representing the plaintiffs, Chuck Hatfield said their position is that People Not Politicians did not need to wait for Kehoe to sign the bill into law or for Hoskins to approve the petition to start gathering signatures.
"I've got a statute that says, 'Before you gather, you submit to the Secretary [of State],' that's all I need," Hatfield said.
William Seidleck, representing Hoskins, said the Secretary of State was correct to initially reject the petition sample sheet for the referendum because the map was not law yet.
"Under the Missouri Constitution, you can only have a referendum on an enacted law, and we submit that there's no law without the governor's signature," Seidleck said.
In addition to the initial signature gathering delay, the plaintiffs also addressed Hoskins' statement in mid-October that said any signature gathered before his approval wouldn't count towards the needed total.
Hoskins said in that statement that he had approved the referendum for circulation, but that "no signatures gathered before this approval date are valid."
On Monday, Chrissy Peters with the Secretary of State's office testified that signatures before Oct. 14 would not count towards the total needed to validate the referendum. Instead, the office will only count signatures gathered on or after that date, she said.
"They will be processed in the group that will be sent to local election authorities for verification that they're registered to vote," Peters said.
Peters also said the signatures collected before will be separated and scanned for possible review later.
Hatfield asked Limbaugh to stop Hoskins from invalidating any signatures collected before Oct. 14.
"His position is that no signatures before the approval date are valid, and that's wrong," Hatfield said.
Seidleck pushed back on the claim that a submitted sample sheet is all that is needed to begin collecting signatures, saying the secretary's approval does matter.
"Endpoint logic dictates that this means that petitioners must have a valid sample sheet on which to collect signatures," Seidleck said.
State lawmakers gathered in September for a special session centered on passing the new congressional map as well as making it harder to amend the Missouri constitution.
Republicans passed both measures over a two-week period.
While the measure that would make it harder to amend the constitution needs voter approval, the new map needs roughly 100,000 signatures in order to put the matter to a vote.
Those signatures must be gathered in a 90-day period.
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