A handful of people turned out for an evening town hall last week hosted by Respect MO Voters.
The group, which describes itself as cross partisan, wants more people to help gather signatures to place an issue on the November ballot, protecting Missouri’s initiative petition process. The ongoing town halls include training for those who want to help.
The goal is to have 2,500 volunteers across the state collecting signatures for 2 hours a week. Late last week, there were 1,221 volunteers statewide.
Respect MO Voters hopes to have collected 300,000 signatures by the end of March. As of last Thursday night, the group had gathered just over 127,000 signatures. They need a total of just over 170,000 certified signatures for the issue to go on the ballot.
Regina Goff lives in Rogersville and is a volunteer with Respect MO Voters.
"It's pretty easy to gather signatures," she said, "because most people that we talk to agree with this. It's process, not issue. We want our vote to count. If we vote something in, we want it to stand."
Goff said this is the first time she’s volunteered for any political issue.
"So many things are happening that you want to impact — it feels good to impact the little things that you can."
Respect MO Voters will hold a town hall Tuesday night, January 13, at 5:30 at the Library Station. It’s planning a town hall in Joplin January 27 at 5:30 at 111 S. 9th Street 10.
