Missouri House members on Monday gave first-round approval to a measure that could make it much more difficult to pass constitutional amendments put before voters through the initiative petition process.
Currently, a proposed constitutional amendment needs to be approved by a majority of statewide voters in order to be enacted. Rep. Ed Lewis' proposed amendment would require any constitutional amendment placed on the ballot through the initiative petition process to win a majority of the statewide vote and passage in eight out of eight congressional districts.
"It's the most democratic thing we can do in a representative republic," said Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson.
Lewis' proposal, which needs statewide approval to go into effect, got first-round approval in the House by a 96-55 vote. It needs another vote on Tuesday to go to the Senate.
Lewis, R-Moberly, said on the floor that a constitutional amendment needed a higher threshold to go into effect. He compared his plan to how the United States has a House based on population and a Senate in which each state gets two members.
"There are eight congressional districts, and each one of them has exactly the same population," Lewis said. "If you can get a majority in each one of those, that is a very broad consensus to just get a majority in each congressional district."
Lewis' original proposal also covered statutory ballot items put before voters through the initiative petition process. House members on Monday approved a change that only had the plan apply to constitutional amendments.
"The initiative petition to change any statutes or laws, we are not changing that in any way," he said.
The plan would also require printed constitutional amendments to appear at polling places, make it illegal for foreign nationals to donate to initiative petition campaigns, require a public comment period for proposed amendments and create penalties for people who fraudulently collect or sign petitions.
The proposal does not apply to ballot initiatives that are placed before voters from the legislature. That means, had Lewis' plan been in effect in 2024, a measure known as Amendment 3 that legalized abortion would have needed to pass in a statewide vote and in eight out of eight congressional districts. But a proposal that lawmakers put on the ballot aiming to repeal much of that effort would only need a majority vote.
Lewis said that bills already have to go through a rigorous process to get to the governor's desk.
Democrats say proposal will gut initiative petition process
Missouri Republicans have sought to make it harder to approve constitutional amendments for more than a decade. But they failed to get anything before voters, most notably a plan in 2024 that would have required constitutional amendments to pass in five out of eight congressional districts.
Even though state voters have backed Republican candidates up and down the ballot, they've also passed left-of-center ballot items to legalize marijuana, expand Medicaid, make sports betting legal and create strong abortion rights protections.
Rep. Eric Woods, D-Kansas City, said his GOP colleagues have shown disdain for Missouri voters by not only trying to get rid of abortion rights protections but also repealing voter-approved sick leave requirements.
"My community is disenfranchised every day by the supermajority in this room," Woods said. "Just because something passes or someone gets elected that you don't like does not mean you are disenfranchised. It means there was a vote."
Woods also said that the fact "we are not applying the same standard here to issues put on the ballot by the legislature is probably the most egregious part of this."
"You are taking power away from the citizens," he said. "You are diluting their votes. It's the same song and dance that we have heard every time, every year that I have been in this chamber."
Rep. Stephanie Hein, D-Springfield, said her constituents felt uncomfortable that rural areas with fewer people could potentially overrule places that have more people.
"One voice, one vote, that is how the citizen-led petition process should work," Hein said.
Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia, said Lewis' measure would effectively make it impossible for constitutional amendments put on the ballot through the initiative petition to pass. He also said the other provisions are "ballot candy" aimed at confusing voters about the real intent of Lewis' proposal.
"This is about killing the initiative petition process and everybody knows it," Smith said.
Smith also said that the initiative petition plan is linked to a bid to redraw the state's congressional lines. He said that making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution would make it harder to "undo the damage done" by drawing a map that targets Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City.
"That's what it's about. It's about Donald Trump. He doesn't want to lose control of the House," Smith said. "We're going to redistrict, and then we're going to take away the voters' rights to do anything about it. Once you do that damage, it's insidious and it's sickening."
Lewis' plan would not stop redistricting opponents from collecting signatures to put the proposed map up for a statewide vote before it goes into effect.
Copyright 2025 St. Louis Public Radio
