JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. —Secretary Ashcroft, again, was pleased with the court’s decision Monday to uphold his ballot certification and the process pertaining to the Marijuana Ballot Initiative.
The Missouri Western District Court of Appeals in Kansas City upheld Friday’s decision by the lower court, stating that the argument that the secretary lacked the authority to review the local election authorities’ determinations was “facially absurd.”
The court further stated that to agree with the plaintiffs, “Would be to improvidently disenfranchise voters whose signatures have been erroneously stricken or crossed through by local election officials through no fault of the signer.”
The court declared the law “does not clearly, unequivocally or unambiguously prohibit the Secretary from independently validating the registered voter status of signers whose signatures have been struck through or crossed out on petition pages by local election authorities.”
Some weeks ago, Secretary Ashcroft’s office was informed of a problem in the signature verification process and was quick to evaluate and take the necessary corrective steps to ensure every legally obtained signature was counted properly.
“I’m pleased, once again, the court affirmed the steps that my office took were correct and consistent in making every voter’s voice heard,” Ashcroft said. “Regardless of how I personally feel about a ballot measure – I took an oath to uphold the law, and the court today affirmed that’s what we did.”
Ashcroft believes voting is a right and a responsibility – he would ask voters to self-educate on this issue and all ballot measures to make informed decisions at the ballot box. More information can be found at www.sos.mo.gov.