Missouri citizens who want to know what their elected state lawmakers think of them should watch carefully what鈥檚 going on in Jefferson City right now.
In pushing to make it much more difficult for the people (but not the politicians) to change the state constitution, the Legislature鈥檚 Republican majority is demonstrating its determination to deprive citizens of their say regarding Missouri鈥檚 near-total ban on abortion rights.
They also think 鈥 and clearly hope 鈥 that those citizens are fearful, xenophobic and remarkably uninformed about their own democracy.
There can be no other conclusion from lawmakers鈥 continuing efforts to peddle so-called ballot candy, designed to fool voters into approving changes to the referendum process that they would otherwise likely oppose.
For the record: Non-U.S. citizens are already barred by state law from voting in Missouri elections (and have been for a century). Also, federal law already explicitly prohibits foreign nationals from influencing American elections at any level.
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Republican attempts in Missouri to put both those redundant prohibitions before the voters is an insulting bid to stoke anti-immigrant fervor in hopes of convincing Missourians to limit their own voting rights.
Currently, if the public wants to approve a change to Missouri鈥檚 Constitution, it requires a simple majority of the vote across the entire state. There are several ways to put such questions on the ballot, including petitions by citizens or a vote of the Legislature.
Petition drives are underway right now to put a referendum on the November ballot asking state voters to restore the abortion rights that the Legislature eliminated after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. (Contact information about the petition effort is available at .)
The proposed amendment is a moderate measure that would guarantee the right to abortion services up until the point of fetal viability 鈥 generally, about 24 weeks 鈥 while allowing state regulation after that point. That鈥檚 the same standard that was used under Roe v. Wade for almost 50 years.
With polls showing such an amendment has a strong chance of passage in Missouri, anti-choice legislators are trying to head it off by passing a separate constitutional amendment first to raise the bar for passage of future referendums.
A measure that passed the Senate in February would set a higher bar for amendments proposed by citizen petitions: Instead of a simple majority of the statewide vote, those referendums would have to win the statewide majority, plus a majority in each of five of the state鈥檚 eight congressional districts.
That would dilute the voting power of Missouri鈥檚 urban areas, effectively letting the state鈥檚 rural middle stop any measure no matter how strongly it was supported in St. 香港三级片 and Kansas City. An analysis by the found that such a system would allow less than a quarter of the state鈥檚 voters to defeat a referendum.
The measure also sets up a double standard that should infuriate all voters: This nearly impossible new bar for passage of constitutional amendments would apply only to ballot initiatives put forward by the public via petition. Any referendum put on the ballot by the Legislature would still be able to pass with just a simple majority of the statewide vote.
Lawmakers are trying to set different rules for the public and themselves, in other words.
In case any Missourian isn鈥檛 yet sufficiently insulted by this frontal assault on their voting rights, Republican lawmakers are also trying to load up their measure with language indicating they think most voters in the state are, well, dumb.
The bill that passed the Senate last month initially included the redundant prohibitions on non-citizen voting and foreign influence in elections. Again, both activities are already banned by state and federal law. Their presence on the ballot would be utterly superfluous 鈥 not to mention misleading, considering it implies these situations are currently allowed.
This dictionary definition of 鈥渂allot candy鈥 was designed, as state Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, bluntly told , to 鈥済ive the voters something to actually latch onto and vote for.鈥
Senate Democrats managed to filibuster that misleading language out of the bill last month, but House Republicans are currently trying to put it back in.
Even if they do, we鈥檙e confident that citizens of the Show Me State won鈥檛 be so easily duped by their own elected representatives.
