What They're
Saying
Article III, Section 49, Missouri Constitution
“The people reserve power to propose and enact or reject laws and amendments to the Constitution by the initiative, independent of the General Assembly.”
League of Women Voters of Missouri
“The practical and financial hurdles to qualifying for the ballot are already considerable. This effort
smacks of a transparent power grab by partisan politicians trying to fundamentally alter the rules and
take away our freedom to vote directly on the issues that impact everyday Missourians.
Instead of stripping away the people’s rights, we urge lawmakers to focus their efforts on the core issues
and 21 st century challenges our state continues to face.”
Sam Licklider
Missouri Association of Realtors
“You don’t just wake up one morning and say I am going to amend the Constitution … You have got to have a fairly large, robust organization in order to get through all of the pitfalls that are there right now.”
Patricia O’Roark
Retired attorney, Carl Junction
“Establishing requirements that are too onerous to meet renders the initiative petition process useless as a tool to participate in democracy. These proposed changes aren’t reform – they amount to a repeal of the entire initiative process.”
Rob Schaaf
Former State Senator (R-St. Joseph)
"Our forebearers very wisely gave the people the ability to place measures on the ballot. The Legislature should fiercely guard Missouri citizens’ Constitutional right to take issues directly to the people and govern ourselves."
Rep. David Tyson Smith
D-Columbia
“It’s basically passing that burden on to the citizens now – that high threshold of getting things done. It’s almost killing the initiative petition process to some degree, and I feel like we should be honest with people and tell them that’s what it’s doing.”
Marilyn McLeod
Columbia, president, League of Women Voters of Missouri
“If the General Assembly thinks hundreds of thousands of citizens must sign a petition to get it on the ballot, should a simple majority of legislators still be able to write an amendment to the Missouri Constitution and get it on a statewide ballot? That’s the double standard that would be in place if these ill-conceived ideas take root.
It’s hypocritical of the General Assembly to try to limit the citizens’ right to petition to get something on the ballot when 100 of our 197 legislators can approve ballot language to reverse a change to our constitution that was approved by voters.”
Dave Meinell
President, Missouri Alliance for Retired Americans
“Civic engagement is a core democratic value - and the initiative petition process in our state is a long- established hallmark of public participation in direct democracy. It's a right our Missouri members and those came before them have proudly exercised for more than a century, and one we must fight to protect for the generations to come."
Tom Coleman, former Republican member of the Missouri House and U.S. congressman, and Russ Carnahan , former Democratic member of the Missouri House and U.S congressman.
“This isn’t about reform, or Democrats versus Republicans. Instead, it’s a transparent power grab by special interests and some politicians trying to fundamentally alter the rules -- and limit our freedom to vote directly on the issues that impact everyday Missourians.”
Former Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft,
June 27, 1992, Veto Message
“It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people. The General Assembly should be reluctant, therefore, to enact legislation which places any impediments on the initiative power which are inconsistent with the reservation found in the constitution.”
Carl Bearden, a St. Charles Republican, CEO of United for Missouri, and former speaker pro tem of the Missouri House of Representatives; and Andrew Brain, CEO of Brain Group in Kansas City and board member of Show Me Integrity.
“Attacks on the ballot initiative petition process in Missouri are not new — and usually arise after an issue passes that the party in power does not like. It happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s under Democratic majorities, and it is happening once again under Republican majorities. Neither party was, or is, correct.”
Sarah Owsley,
Empower Missouri
“Initiative petitions are not easy, nor are they silver bullets for passing legislation. The vast majority of
initiative petitions fail to even collect the required number of signatures to get on the ballot….
The Missouri Constitution has been amended 182 times since 1910. A whopping (85percent) of those
amendments originated in the Legislature, with only 27 of those amendments originating through the
citizens’ initiative petition process … If the issue is truly that legislators believe our Constitution changes
too frequently, lawmakers need to begin by looking within their own hallways.
Action St. Louis
Empower Missouri
Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis
Metropolitan Congregations United
Missouri Faith Voices
Missouri Healthcare for All
Missouri Jobs with Justice
Missouri National Education Association
Missouri People’s Party
Missouri Sierra Club
National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis
Organization for Black Struggle
Paraquad
Pro-Choice Missouri
SEIU Missouri/Kansas State Council
Show Me Integrity
St. Louis County NAACP
“This isn’t about reform, or Democrats versus Republicans. Instead, it’s a transparent power grab by special interests and some politicians trying to fundamentally alter the rules -- and limit our freedom to vote directly on the issues that impact everyday Missourians.”
Article III, Section 49, Missouri Constitution
“The people reserve power to propose and enact or reject laws and amendments to the Constitution by the initiative, independent of the General Assembly.”
League of Women Voters of Missouri
“The practical and financial hurdles to qualifying for the ballot are already considerable. This effort smacks of a transparent power grab by partisan politicians trying to fundamentally alter the rules and take away our freedom to vote directly on the issues that impact everyday Missourians.
Instead of stripping away the people’s rights, we urge lawmakers to focus their efforts on the core issues and 21 st century challenges our state continues to face.”
Sam Licklider
Former State Senator (R-St. Joseph)
“You don’t just wake up one morning and say I am going to amend the Constitution … You have got to have a fairly large, robust organization in order to get through all of the pitfalls that are there right now.”
Patricia O’Roark
Retired attorney, Carl Junction
“Establishing requirements that are too onerous to meet renders the initiative petition process useless as a tool to participate in democracy. These proposed changes aren’t reform – they amount to a repeal of the entire initiative process.”
Rob Schaaf
Former State Senator (R-St. Joseph)
"Our forebearers very wisely gave the people the ability to place measures on the ballot. The Legislature should fiercely guard Missouri citizens’ Constitutional right to take issues directly to the people and govern ourselves."
Rep. David Tyson Smith
D-Columbia
“It’s basically passing that burden on to the citizens now – that high threshold of getting things done. It’s almost killing the initiative petition process to some degree, and I feel like we should be honest with people and tell them that’s what it’s doing.”
Marilyn McLeod
Columbia, president, League of Women Voters of Missouri
“If the General Assembly thinks hundreds of thousands of citizens must sign a petition to get it on the ballot, should a simple majority of legislators still be able to write an amendment to the Missouri Constitution and get it on a statewide ballot? That’s the double standard that would be in place if these ill-conceived ideas take root. It’s hypocritical of the General Assembly to try to limit the citizens’ right to petition to get something on the ballot when 100 of our 197 legislators can approve ballot language to reverse a change to our constitution that was approved by voters.”
Dave Meinell
President, Missouri Alliance for Retired Americans
“Civic engagement is a core democratic value - and the initiative petition process in our state is a long- established hallmark of public participation in direct democracy. It's a right our Missouri members and those came before them have proudly exercised for more than a century, and one we must fight to protect for the generations to come."
Tom Coleman, former Republican member of the Missouri House and U.S. congressman, and Russ Carnahan , former Democratic member of the Missouri House and U.S congressman.
“This isn’t about reform, or Democrats versus Republicans. Instead, it’s a transparent power grab by special interests and some politicians trying to fundamentally alter the rules -- and limit our freedom to vote directly on the issues that impact everyday Missourians.”
Former Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft,
June 27, 1992, Veto Message
“It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people. The General Assembly should be reluctant, therefore, to enact legislation which places any impediments on the initiative power which are inconsistent with the reservation found in the constitution.”
Carl Bearden, a St. Charles Republican, CEO of United for Missouri, and former speaker pro tem of the Missouri House of Representatives; and Andrew Brain, CEO of Brain Group in Kansas City and board member of Show Me Integrity.
“Attacks on the ballot initiative petition process in Missouri are not new — and usually arise after an issue passes that the party in power does not like. It happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s under Democratic majorities, and it is happening once again under Republican majorities. Neither party was, or is, correct.”
Sarah Owsley
Empower Missouri
“Initiative petitions are not easy, nor are they silver bullets for passing legislation. The vast majority of initiative petitions fail to even collect the required number of signatures to get on the ballot….
The Missouri Constitution has been amended 182 times since 1910. A whopping (85percent) of those amendments originated in the Legislature, with only 27 of those amendments originating through the citizens’ initiative petition process … If the issue is truly that legislators believe our Constitution changes too frequently, lawmakers need to begin by looking within their own hallways.
Action St. Louis
Empower Missouri
Jewish Community Relations Councilof St. Louis
Metropolitan Congregations United
Missouri Faith Voices
Missouri Healthcare for All
Missouri Jobs with Justice
Missouri National Education Association
Missouri People’s Party
Missouri Sierra Club
National Council of Jewish Women St. Louis
Organization for Black Struggle
Paraquad
Pro-Choice Missouri
SEIU Missouri/Kansas State Council
Show Me Integrity
St. Louis County NAACP
“This isn’t about reform, or Democrats versus Republicans. Instead, it’s a transparent power grab by special interests and some politicians trying to fundamentally alter the rules -- and limit our freedom to vote directly on the issues that impact everyday Missourians.”