KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics on both sides of the state line. If you have a story idea to share, you can send Charlie an email at charlie.keegan@kshb.com.
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Voters in Missouri will decide whether to change some voting rules within the state’s constitution on Nov. 5.
Amendment 7 asks voters to prohibit ranked choice voting and only allow citizens to vote.
Ranked choice voting gives voters the opportunity to rank candidates in order of preference instead of choosing one winner.
Candidates must receive the majority of the votes — 50 percent, plus 1 or better — to win.
If a race has more than two candidates and none of them receive more than 50 percent of votes, election leaders hold an instant runoff.
They eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes, then use the rankings from voters for the remaining candidates.
St. Louis uses a similar system called approval voting, but no other municipality in the state uses ranked choice voting.
“I think what this amendment is trying to do is trying to get ahead of that," Missouri Rep. Jon Patterson, a Republican from Lee's Summit, said. "I think having ranked choice voting would be very confusing. It would not instill a lot of confidence in our elections, and I think we should avoid it."
Larry Bradley of Better Ballot KC believes ranked choice voting is better than the current system. He’s encouraging people to vote no on Amendment 7.
Bradley said the ranked choice method guarantees the winner has the majority of votes, gives third party candidates more of an opportunity, increases competition, and eliminates extreme candidates.
“The majority of voters are able to say, ‘So and so was my first choice, and I’m glad they won,' or, ‘So and so wasn’t my first choice, but they were one of my choices, and I’m glad they won,'" Bradley said.
Critics argue the state constitution already bans noncitizens from voting.
The constitution states "all citizens" who meet requirements are able to vote.
Amendment 7 changes to the language to "only citizens."
“[The current wording] does not expressly allow noncitizens to vote, but it does nothing to prohibit it,” Missouri Sen. Ben Brown, a Republican from Franklin County, said.
Brown sponsored the resolution to place this measure on the ballot.
He said California has similar language to Missouri in its constitution and a court ruled the language did not prevent the city of San Francisco from giving noncitizens voting power.
"I think it's a pretty common sense measure," Patterson said.
Critics of the amendment called the noncitizen component "ballot candy" meant to steal the headlines and motivate voters to approve the amendment which would ban ranked choice voting.
"We call that ballot candy; that’s nonsense," said Wes Rogers, a former statehouse member and current Kansas City councilman. "It adds nothing new. We’re already doing things that way."
Missouri is one of eight states with questions about noncitizen voting on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Here’s how Amendment 7 will appear on ballots.
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
- Make the Constitution consistent with state law by only allowing citizens of the United States to vote;
- Prohibit the ranking of candidates by limiting voters to a single vote per candidate or issue; and
- Require the plurality winner of a political party primary to be the single candidate at a general election?
State and local governmental entities estimate no costs or savings.
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