KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sunday at 5 p.m. is the deadline for groups who want to put an initiative petition on a Missouri ballot to submit the required signatures to the Secretary of State’s office.
KSHB 41 News contacted a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office to explain how the process works.
Ballot language
Before gathering signatures, groups must submit their petition to the state for review and public comment. The state also prepares a fiscal note in connection to the petition.
Signatures
Once the ballot title is approved, groups circulate the petition to gather signatures.
The amount of signatures required to place an item on the ballot varies.
It’s based on the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election.
Petitions require signatures from voters in at least six of the state’s eight congressional districts.
This year, a petition to change the state’s constitution requires about 171,000 signatures.
A petition changing state statutes requires about 107,000 signatures.
Signatures must come from registered Missouri voters.
Verification
Signatures are due to the Secretary of State’s office in Jefferson City by 5 p.m. Sunday.
That office has up to four weeks to sort the signatures and send them to their corresponding election offices for verification.
Those boards have to match signatures on the petition to signatures on voter registrations.
Each election board has until July 28 to send back a count of valid signatures to the state.
Groups always collect more signatures than they need to account for any invalid signatures.
Certification
Missouri’s Secretary of State has two weeks after July 28 to certify all the signatures and determine if the petition has a sufficient amount of signatures to go on the ballot.
Election
Most of the initiative petitions going through this process this year would appear on the Nov. 5 election.
The governor could call a special election for one or more of the initiatives.
Reform
This legislative session, Missouri’s House of Representatives passed a bill that would raise the threshold for an initiative petition to pass an election.
Senate Joint Resolution 74 would raise the threshold from a simple majority to a majority of voters in a majority of Missouri’s congressional districts.
The Senate has not yet voted on the proposal.
Initiatives
As of Friday, the Secretary of State had received initiative petitions about raising the minimum wage, allowing sports betting, and a measure to legalize abortion.
Groups are also collecting signatures to allow a casino at the Lake of the Ozarks and one to allow advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe some controlled substances.
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