By Nikki Weinstein
FOCUS Director of Policy and Community Engagement
According to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office, an initiative petition to change state law in Missouri requires signatures to be obtained from registered voters equal to five percent of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in six of Missouri's nine congressional districts. For an initiative petition changing the state constitution to be placed on the ballot, signatures are needed from registered voters equal to eight percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in six of the state's nine congressional districts.
This is not just a hoop to jump through. There is a reason for this. Signing your name to that petition means you support the initiative. There needs to be enough support shown to make it worthwhile to put something on the ballot. Then everyone can vote on it to see if it will become law. Otherwise, I could decide on my own to put an issue before the vote of the people…creating, for example Nikki Weinstein Day on June 20 (my birthday) by ballot initiative. You can imagine what this might lead to. So there is reason to collecting all these signatures. It shows enough Missourians support something to put it on the ballot.
Last year, the misleadingly-named Missouri Civil Rights Initiative attempted to get enough signatures to get their initiative to end affirmative action on the November ballot. They failed. Not enough Missourians supported their idea. They are trying again to get their initiative on the 2010 ballot. Should they be able to try again? Should they be able to try again so soon? Haven’t the people of Missouri spoken and said we do not want that on the ballot?
Our ballot initiative process has been otherwise criticized as well. There is a whole industry that revolves around paying people to collect signatures. They are usually not paid hourly, but by the number of signatures collected. Does this encourage fraud? People make a living off traveling from state to state working to collect signatures. Should we allow non-Missourians to be a part of this process? Can true grassroots efforts compete with these big moneyed interests?
Thus far 2009 there are two bills introduced in the state legislature to address this. SB 115 requires those gathering signatures to be Missouri residents and not get paid by the signature. Those who have been convicted before of forgery can not collect signatures. HJR 3 proposes a constitutional amendment increasing the number of signatures needed to put a measure on the ballot. Do these proposals go far enough?