An effort to let voters decide whether Missouri’s newly-passed Congressional map is needed is underway. And organizers say the effort is going well.
Late last week, People Not Politicians announced that more than 3,100 volunteers have collected over 50,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
“I have worked on 10 different initiatives over the last 20 years in Missouri. This has the most volunteers, the most energy, is being incredibly well received by Missouri voters,” said Richard von Glahn, the organization’s executive director.
Volunteers have been knocking on doors and meeting people at events like concerts and farmers markets.
van Glahn said People Not Politicians believes that the new map prioritizes politicians rather than voters. That’s why they want to allow voters to decide.
A coalition of groups is gathering signatures, according to von Glahn, including his organization, the Missouri AFL-CIO, Missouri Jobs with Justice, the Rural Crisis Center and Missouri Faith voices.
He said he’s confident they’ll have the required number of signatures – around 110,000 -- by the due date of December 11. But he said their plan is to turn in significantly more than that. The group had only 90 days from when the special session in September ended to try to get the issue on the ballot.
von Glahn said the referendum process in Missouri has been around for 150 years and has been used more than 25 times to override what the legislature has decided. The most recent, he said, was Proposition A, the Right to Work law, which 2/3 of Missouri voters struck down in 2018.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed House Bill 1, the Missouri First Map, into law on September 29. In a press release after the signing, he said, “Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our values, across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of the congressional representation of states like New York, California, and Illinois. We believe this map best represents Missourians.”
