Missouri Voting Policies in State Constitution Initiative (2020)

Missouri Voting Policies in State Constitution Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Elections and campaigns
Status Not on the ballot
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin Citizens
List of Missouri measuresMissouri Amendment 1Missouri Amendment 2Missouri Amendment 3Submit

The Missouri Voting Policies in State Constitution Initiative was not on the ballot in Missouri as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.

Mary Anne Sedey, an employment lawyer, filed several versions of the ballot initiative. The policies found across the ballot initiatives are:

• automatic voter registration
• no-excuse absentee voting, including a mail-in-ballot absentee option
• a requirement for risk-limiting audits of election returns, and
• provisions allowing voters to cast provisional ballots at precincts other than their own as long as (a) the precinct is within the same election jurisdiction and (b) the provisional ballot has the same candidates and measures as the ballot at the voter's registered precinct.

Some of the ballot initiatives would have allowed 16-year olds to pre-register to vote and in-person early voting during the weekend before an election.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the measure is available for:

• Initiative 72
• Initiative 73
• Initiative 74
• Initiative 75
• Initiative 76
• Initiative 77
• Initiative 78
• Initiative 79
• Initiative 80
• Initiative 81
• Initiative 82
• Initiative 83
• Initiative 88
• Initiative 89
• Initiative 97
• Initiative 98
• Initiative 105
• Initiative 106
• Initiative 107
• Initiative 108
• Initiative 109
• Initiative 110
• Initiative 111
• Initiative 112
• Initiative 129
• Initiative 130
• Initiative 131
• Initiative 132
• Initiative 133
• Initiative 134
• Initiative 135
• Initiative 136
• Initiative 137
• Initiative 138
• Initiative 139

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 2020 ballot:

• Signatures: The smallest possible requirement was 160,199 valid signatures. The actual requirement depends on the congressional districts in which signatures were collected.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was May 3, 2020.

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

Mary Anne Sedey, an employment lawyer, filed 22 versions of the ballot initiative between June 14 and June 27, 2019. She withdrew six of the proposals. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) approved 14 of the proposals for signature gathering on July 31, 2019. He approved an additional two proposals on August 5, 2019, and an additional eight proposals on September 20, 2019. Sedey filed an additional 11 proposals on November 6, 2019. On December 18, 2019, they were approved for circulation. Petitioners did not submit signatures by the May 3 deadline.

Sedey v. Ashcroft

Mary Anne Sedey filed several versions of a ballot initiative, which Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft approved for signature gathering on July 31, 2019, and August 5, 2019. He wrote summaries of each version. Sedey filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Ashcroft in the Missouri 19th Judicial Circuit Court. Sedey's petition for relief said, "Ashcroft’s summary statements are 'intentionally argumentative,' insufficient, and unfair. The Secretary cherry-picked certain parts of the initiatives and described them in antagonistic terms likely to prejudice voters against the measures, while leaving out many key features likely to be popular with voters." Sedey asked the court to change Ashcroft's summaries and suggested the following alternative:

Original (Secretary of State Ashcroft) ballot title for IP 2020-72

Sedey's suggested ballot title

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to: establish automatic voter registration of individuals at least 16 years old from state agency lists (including the departments of revenue, social services, corrections and conservation); allow voters on election day to appear at the wrong polling place, vote on a wrong ballot, and have election judges later transfer the votes to the right ballot; allow voters to sign up to permanently vote by mail, with voting by mail allowed during the six weeks before each election; and make voters' method of voting a public record (mail, in person or military)?

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to: create a system of automatic voter registration; allow permanent enrollment to receive absentee ballots by mail; allow early and no-fault absentee voting (in-person or by mail), starting 6 weeks before an election; require auditing of election returns for irregularities; extend the time period for accepting and counting military ballots; require the counting of provisional ballots cast in a voter’s election jurisdiction, only for measures on which the voter is entitled to vote; and allow eligible citizens ages 16 and 17 to pre-register to vote, but not vote before turning 18?

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Elections and campaigns on the ballot
• Suffrage on the ballot

Missouri

• Missouri ballot measures
• Missouri ballot measure laws
• Automatic voter registration

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls