By the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – As Missouri’s 2024 legislative session came to a close (Friday), Missouri voter protection advocates cheered defeat of a resolution gutting Missouri’s citizen initiative process by ending majority rule.
The measure, SJR 74, proposed ending majority rule through a confusing concurrent majority requirement, which would allow a minority of voters to override measures supported by a majority of Missourians. Knowing that such political gerrymandering was unpopular with voters, the Missouri House added provisions that would have had no practical impact but sound appealing on their face – including a citizenship requirement to vote and a ban on foreign funding of IPs that are already part of Missouri law. Testimony from Missourians overwhelmingly opposed the legislature’s efforts to end the majority rule that has defined Missouri’s citizen initiative process for more than a century.
The Senate passed the resolution earlier this year without the so-called “ballot candy” provisions following a 21-hour filibuster. Lawmakers in the House added the provisions back in at the urging of the bill sponsor, Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman. Senate democrats then stood for a record-breaking 51-hour filibuster this week to reject the ballot trickery, sending the measure back to the House, which rejected the “clean” version of the proposal — causing it to die upon the legislature’s adjournment (Friday). The citizenship language will go before voters in another resolution passed by lawmakers (Friday) afternoon, SJR 78.
Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, Missouri’s nonpartisan statewide coalition of voter protection advocates, including more than 70 organizational partners, along with its team at Jones Advocacy Group, has led the legislative opposition to SJR 74 and the more than two dozen measures introduced this year that would have ended majority rule and impede Missouri’s long-standing citizen initiative process.
In response to (Friday’s) action, Denise Lieberman, director and general counsel of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, issued the following statement:
“The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition is elated that lawmakers upheld the fundamental fairness of majority rule in Missouri’s citizen initiative process. As a result, Missouri voters across the political spectrum retain their ability to have a direct voice in our laws through the citizen initiative process.
“We are particularly grateful to Senators who stood for a record 51 hours to oppose this proposal, and for Senators – Republican and Democrat – who rejected efforts at ballot trickery. The initiative process is a proven tool of liberty in Missouri for more than a century, allowing citizens across the political spectrum to have a direct say in the laws that impact them and their families. Today, voters of Missouri can rest assured that they retain the ultimate power to hold government accountable and propose ideas they want to move our state forward.”
The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition is Missouri’s nonpartisan statewide network of voter advocates and election law experts who work to protect the freedom to vote through policy advocacy, strategic litigation, voter education and the Election Protection program. The Coalition includes nearly 70 affiliated partner organizations.