Missouri Secretary of State

Missouri's secretary of state is only checking about 200,000 of the 300,000 signatures that were submitted to force a statewide vote on the gerrymandered congressional map. Referendum organizers are less than 200 signatures short of qualifying for the ballot, but want all signatures reviewed.

A similar version of this bill was thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court in January because of an unrelated item. Before it was struck down, that new process was put to the test over a proposed constitutional amendment to ban most abortions.

The Missouri secretary of state may be given additional subpoena power to investigate complaints of election fraud under a bill that now heads to the state Senate.

Missouri Republicans, acting at the urging of President Trump, redrew Cleaver's Kansas City-area district to make it harder for a Democrat to win. Despite uncertainties about which map will be upheld, Cleaver has filed to run for reelection.

Last month, the Missouri Supreme Court threw out legislation that gave greater authority to the secretary of state over proposed ballot summaries. Judges have repeatedly rejected Denny Hoskins' language for being biased or misleading.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, going against a century of precedent, declared that the Republican-favoring congressional map took effect Dec. 11, even though opponents had submitted enough signatures to likely force a statewide referendum.

Some Republican election officials have broken with the president on nationalizing elections, even as they have avoided criticizing him directly. That includes Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, who also told lawmakers he wouldn’t provide the state’s full voter list to the feds without a court order.

Missouri Republican lawmakers pushed through the bill last year in response to the campaign for an abortion rights amendment, and to protect against lawsuits over abortion restrictions still on the books.

An attorney for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins told a judge that the original ballot summary for a referendum on Missouri's gerrymandered congressional map is “inherently argumentative” and should be revised

Missouri state Rep. Will Jobe filed a resolution requesting an impeachment investigation of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins over his handling of a redistricting referendum. Hoskins is already facing multiple lawsuits over his actions, including declaring a portion of signatures invalid.

A Missouri citizen group collected 49,773 pages of signatures to force a statewide vote on the redrawn congressional map passed by Republican lawmakers last year. But Secretary of State Denny Hoskins will only submit 33,068 for verification, saying the rest are invalid.

The Missouri attorney general claims that the Republican-drawn congressional map is now active. But an anti-redistricting campaign argues that the law must be suspended while the state determines if enough valid signatures were submitted to force a statewide vote.