Launch parties were held across Missouri Wednesday night, including in Springfield and Joplin, as Respect Missouri Voters Coalition volunteers were trained how to gather signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot next year.
The Respect Missouri Voters amendment would require ballot language to be clear, unbiased, fair, accurate and easy to understand; prohibit politicians from overturning initiatives passed by voters unless an 80% bi-partisan supermajority sends any changes to voters to approve; and would prohibit any legislation making it more difficult to gather signatures or pass initiatives at the ballot box.
In Springfield, there were few empty chairs at the First Unitarian Universalist Church were full as former House Minority Leader Crystal Quade addressed the crowd gathered there.
"We are here tonight after many, many months of folks working on this to be able to kick off this ballot initiative to tell the politicians to mind their business and listen to the will of the voters," she said.
One volunteer at the event was Gene Davison. He said the effort is all about ensuring Missourian’s rights to have initiative petitions in the future.
"The legislature is trying to prohibit our right from using initiatives to change laws, and we think that that's wrong," he said. "We want to be able to protect that right, not just for ourselves but for future generations, too."
Respect Missouri Voters, which calls itself a cross partisan coalition, is recruiting volunteers to help gather signatures. The goal is to have all the signatures in by January 1.
