Protesters gather in the Missouri Capitol rotunda Sept. 10 in opposition to a proposed congressional district map that passed the House (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
A referendum petition seeking a statewide vote on the gerrymandered Missouri redistricting plan is insufficient because the bill changing district lines hasn’t been signed yet, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins decided Friday.
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, in an opinion letter dated Thursday, recommended Hoskins reject the petition because the law describing the form says the petition must refer to “laws” passed by the General Assembly.
In the opinion letter, which has not yet been published on the attorney general’s website, Hanaway wrote: “A bill passed by the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate does not become ‘a law’ until it is either ‘approved by the governor’ or until the bill is not ‘returned by the governor within the time limits prescribed by this section.’”
The redistricting plan, she wrote, “has not been signed by Governor Kehoe.”
In a statement to The Independent, Hanaway’s office said proponents should have waited.
“State law only allows a referendum on measures that have been enacted into law,” the statement provided by spokeswoman Abigail Bergmann read. “The referendum petition was thus premature.”
The redistricting plan seeks to flip the 5th Congressional District, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, to Republicans. President Donald Trump began pushing for Missouri to redistrict in late July.
Richard von Glahn, leading the committee People Not Politicians in its quest to put the plan on a ballot, immediately called shenanigans and his attorney, Chuck Hatfield, wrote a letter demanding a revision.
“It is a matter of public record that the governor has announced his assent to the bill and intends to sign it on Sunday of this week,” Hatfield wrote in a footnote to his legal analysis. “Delaying review of the referendum forms on that basis is simply silly. Nothing allows you to do so.”
To be successful, a referendum petition must have signatures equal to 5% of the vote for governor in six of the state’s eight congressional districts. The petitions must be submitted within 90 days of the adjournment of the legislative session that passed the new law.
Lawmakers concluded the special session on Sept. 12, giving von Glahn’s group until Dec. 11 to submit the signatures.
“People Not Politicians has continued to face obstinance from politicians who refuse to perform their administrative duties and adhere to legal deadlines around processing the legally submitted referendum petition,” a news release from the campaign stated. “The group continues to gather signatures to put the issue before Missouri voters.”
If the decision is not reversed, the issue will go to the courts, von Glahn said.
“We are confident the courts will side with Missourians constitutional right to a referendum, as they always have,” he said in the news release.
In his letter challenging Hanaway’s legal analysis, Hatfield wrote that her constitutional references are inaccurate and she missed important sections that control the referendum process.
“Your letter ignores (the referendum clause), which guarantees to the people the ‘power to approve or reject by referendum any act of the general assembly,’” Hatfield wrote. “That is exactly what Mr. von Glahn seeks to do and the constitution is extremely clear.”
In 2022, the Missouri Supreme Court found two laws that impeded the referendum process were unconstitutional. In that decision, the court found that signatures gathered before the ballot language for the petition had been written were valid.
In that case, administrative delays by the attorney general and the secretary of state were found to be improper barriers when opponents of a law banning abortions attempted an initiative in 2019.
“This is the same stuff we went through on the abortion case,” Hatfield said, “and the courts of appeals told them you can’t do that.”
This story was updated at 6 p.m. Friday with a comment from the attorney general’s office.
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