JEFFERSON CITY — After Missouri courts threw out and rewrote the Legislature’s ballot language for a proposed change to the state constitution in 2020, Republican lawmakers moved Monday night to strip judges’ power to rewrite ballot language.
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, would bar judges from rewriting ballot language for proposed constitutional or statutory changes written by the Legislature.
The measure won first round approval amid ongoing debunked GOP claims of election fraud and voting irregularities. Democrats described it as another attempt by Republicans to undermine democracy by limiting the power of the judicial branch of government.
The measure awaits a final vote in the Senate before moving to the House. A similar proposal failed to make it to the governor’s desk last year.
The effort follows rulings from two courts in the run-up to the November 2020 election that tossed the Legislature’s wording for a question that changed the way Missouri was to draw state legislative districts after the 2020 U.S. Census.
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A Cole County judge tossed and rewrote the summary, saying the language floated by Republicans was “insufficient and unfair” and violated Missouri law. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, also rejected the GOP lawmakers’ language and made additional edits before it appeared on the ballot.
After the revisions, the redistricting question, Amendment 3, narrowly passed with 51% support.
State law requires ballot summaries to be “a true and impartial statement of the purposes of the proposed measure” and “neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create prejudice either for or against the proposed measure.”
Eigel argued lawmakers were preventing judges from “legislating from the bench,” because writing the language is the Legislature’s job. If judges decide the ballot language is unconstitutional, they can reject it but not rewrite it.
Democrats said the proposal would make it easier for partisan language to make its way onto the ballot.
Democrats also used debate on the measure to ease election rules, but their efforts failed to gain traction.
On a 22-10 vote, the Senate turned down an amendment offered by Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur, that would have given Missourians a chance to vote absentee without an excuse.
The legislation is Senate Bill 812.
