A county circuit court judge ruled earlier last month that the wording of a ballot measure authored by the Republican legislature was “misleading” in an effort to “entice” voters into repealing an anti-gerrymandering reform measure approved by voters in 2018. This week a Missouri Appeals Court affirmed the lower court ruling that the original ballot language was misleading but it reworded the circuit court’s rewrite as well. You can read all three versions below.
- The circuit court replaced the ballot summary language for Amendment 3 to make clear that if the measure is approved, it would reverse the 2018 measure.
- The 2018 ballot measure requires a nonpartisan demographer to draw state legislative districts. Partisan fairness and competitiveness is required by a mathematical formula.
- The ballot measure proposed by the Republican-led legislature would have abolished the demographer position and delegated redistricting to two bipartisan commissions appointed by the governor.
- The state has indicated it does not want to take the case to the state supreme court, but is asking the appeals court for some minor changes to the final wording.
Original Ballot Language:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
Create citizen-led independent bipartisan commissions to draw state legislative districts based on one person, one vote, minority voter protection, compactness, competitiveness, fairness and other criteria?
Circuit Court Amended Language:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
Repeal rules for drawing state legislative districts approved by voters in November 2018 and replace them with rules proposed by the legislature?
Court of Appeals Amended Language:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
Change the redistricting process voters approved in 2018 by: (i) transferring responsibility for drawing state legislative districts from the Nonpartisan State Demographer to Governor-appointed bipartisan commissions; (ii) modifying and reordering the redistricting criteria.
