Missouri Appellate Judge Selection Initiative (2022)

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Missouri Appellate Judge Selection Initiative
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Election date
November 8, 2022
Topic
State judiciary
Status
Not on the ballot
Type
Constitutional amendment
Origin
Citizens

The Missouri Appellate Judge Selection Initiative was not on the ballot in Missouri as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022.

The amendment would have changed how appellate judges are elected, reduced their terms from 12 to six years, and removed the appellate judicial commission from the process of filling appellate vacancies.[1]

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title was as follows:[1]

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to provide that:

  • appellate court (supreme court and court of appeals) judges shall be elected in the same manner as the governor;
  • the term of an appellate court judge shall be reduced from 12 years to 6 years;
  • no appellate court judge can be elected to a particular judicial seat for more than two consecutive terms;
  • the governor fills appellate court vacancies without recommendations from the appellate judicial commission and the person appointed shall serve the remainder of the vacating judge's term; and
  • all judicial candidates can receive and make campaign contributions?

State and local government entities estimate no costs or savings from this proposal.[2]

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Missouri

Process in Missouri

In Missouri, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for governor in the previous gubernatorial election in six of the eight state congressional districts. Signatures must be filed with the secretary of state six months prior to the election.

The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2022 ballot:

  • Signatures: The smallest possible requirement was 171,592 valid signatures. The actual requirement depends on the congressional districts in which signatures were collected.
  • Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was May 8, 2022.

Once the signatures have been filed with the secretary of state, the secretary copies the petition sheets and transmits them to county election authorities for verification. The secretary of state may choose whether the signatures are to be verified by a 5 percent random sample or full verification. If the random sampling projects between 90 percent and 110 percent of required signatures, a full check of all signatures is required. If more than 110 percent, the initiative is certified, and, if less than 90 percent, the initiative fails.

Stages of this initiative

Chris Vas filed the ballot initiative on March 1, 2020. On April 13, 2021, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) cleared the initiative for signature gathering.[1]

This initiative did not meet the signature requirements by the May 8, 2022 deadline.[3]

See also

Footnotes