Backers of a proposed referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional plan believe they have met the minimum number of signatures needed to make the November’s ballot.
Updated data, posted Monday morning by People Not Politicians, the political action committee that organized a referendum petition drive, shows that the petition has at least 129% of the required signatures in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th districts. The last district needed to qualify for the ballot was southwest Missouri’s 7th District and 102% of the signatures needed are valid, with more than 6,000 signatures left to be checked.
“This is what we have known to be true all along,” said Richard von Glahn, director of People Not Politicians. “We clearly have enough signatures.”
The updated data, obtained from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ office via a Sunshine Law request, arrived Monday morning, von Glahn said, just days after a Cole County judge ordered revisions last week to the ballot summary for the referendum.
In the decision delivered Friday, Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe wrote that he agreed with Hoskins that two phrases should be removed from the summary, originally prepared by Hoskins, as prejudicial and unfair.
Stumpe also identified a third phrase that he deleted for the same reason.
The rest of the description, describing the geographic features, is neutral and fair, Stumpe wrote, and will be retained.
“It is neither inaccurate nor unfair to describe the map enacted by (lawmakers) in the summary statement for (the referendum),” Stumpe wrote.
In the deleted phrases, Stumpe removed language that described the map adopted in 2022 as the “existing gerrymandered” plan that “protects incumbent politicians.” Both phrases were prejudicial, Hoskins had admitted in court.
The third phrase, that the new map “better reflects statewide voting patterns,” is far too general, Stumpe wrote.
“While Missourians may, as a whole, generally vote in a particular pattern, it is deceptive because it is not an accurate statement when voting patterns are looked at in sheer numbers, not just who gets elected,” Stumpe wrote.
The remaining language, on compactness and community political power, is acceptable, Stumpe wrote.
“The court finds that most of the remainder of the secretary’s summary statement captures the central features of the referred measure and explains the legal and probable consequences of those features using neutral, fair language,” he wrote.
The new ballot language Stumpe ordered would be:
“Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled ‘House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),’ which repeals Missouri’s congressional plan, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more cities and counties intact and are more compact?”
People Not Politicians will decide Monday afternoon whether to appeal the ruling on the ballot summary, von Glahn said.
Stumpe’s decision settles, at least at the trial court level, one of three major outstanding legal battles surrounding the referendum on the revised congressional district map forced through the General Assembly last year under pressure from President Donald Trump.
All three cases involve the push for a referendum on the map, organized by a political action committee called People Not Politicians. The campaign submitted just over 300,000 signatures to Hoskins on Dec. 9 and in one pending case, Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh is considering whether to order Hoskins to check approximately 100,000 signatures collected before he approved the petition form on Oct. 14. He heard arguments again last week, but has not changed his December ruling that put a decision on hold pending the outcome of the verification process.
Stumpe is also the judge in the third case, asking him to declare that the map approved by lawmakers in 2022 is the one in effect for this year’s elections. His ballot language, People Not Politicians argues, foreshadows his decision on which map is in effect.
Phrasing that states the map passed last year would replace the current plan with a new one “means the boundaries being proposed are not currently in effect,” von Glahn said.
The GOP goal for the map passed last year is to flip the 5th Congressional District, currently held by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat. The GOP hopes to win seven of the state’s eight congressional seats — they currently hold six — to help preserve the slim Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Six Republicans have filed for the GOP nomination, while Cleaver has filed for reelection to a 13th term.
Under the Missouri Constitution, a law challenged by a referendum does not go into effect until a vote is held. Stumpe heard arguments Feb. 9 on whether that language applies to referendums on redistricting and has not ruled.
Hoskins and Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway contend the map approved last year will be used for this year’s elections unless the courts order otherwise.
“There are enough signatures for a referendum. Which means (last year’s map) is paused,” von Glahn said. “I shouldn’t need a court order for an elected official to do a job that they swore an oath to do. But if that is needed, that will happen.”
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.