A unique opportunity in Missouri in 2022

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This year, voters in Missouri have a unique opportunity enact as many reforms as needed to make Missouri a true democracy with a republican form of government (a representative democracy).  The Missouri Constitution stipulates that every twenty years, the Secretary of State shall submit the following question to the voters: “Shall there be a convention to revise and amend the constitution?”  This is one of those years.  On November 8, 2022, the citizens of Missouri will be asked that question.  Missourians should take advantage of this rare opportunity to “revise and amend” the Missouri Constitution by voting “yes”. 

The opening lines of the Missouri Constitution are in harmony with the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence.  They describe the principles of a true democracy and a republican form of government.  The reality in Missouri is quite different.

As the result of extreme gerrymandering and numerous other flaws in the manner in which we conduct elections, there is a serious disconnect between the will of the people of Missouri and the acts of the state legislature.

• In 2017, the General Assembly passed an anti-worker “right-to-work” bill.  It took millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers to gather the signatures needed to get a veto referendum on the ballot.  The voters then rejected the right-to-work bill by a more than two-to-one margin, with 67.5% of the voters rejecting the bill passed by the General Assembly.

• In 2018, the citizens of Missouri used the initiative process to pass an ethics reform called “Clean Missouri” only to have some of the key provisions removed by a deceitfully worded proposal put on the ballot two years later by the General Assembly.  [Clean Missouri passed with 62% of the vote.  The deceptively worded ballot proposal passed with 51%.  Had both proposals been on the ballot at the same time, Clean Missouri would have prevailed by virtue of being passed with a higher percentage of the vote.] 

• After the General Assembly not only refused repeatedly to increase the minimum wage in Missouri, but also blocked efforts by Kansas City and St. Louis to raise the local minimum wage, citizens used the initiative process to put an increase in the state minimum wage on the ballot in 2018.  The voters of Missouri approved the increase in the minimum wage, with 62% voting in favor.

• In 2020, the citizens of Missouri used the initiative process to expand Medicaid in Missouri.  Despite opponents of Medicaid expansion spending millions of dollars to stir up opposition, Medicaid expansion was approved with 52% of the vote.  The people of Missouri have had to fight the General Assembly in court to get legislators to fund the Medicaid expansion approved by voters.  

• A campaign to put a proposal to put ranked choice voting on the ballot in November gathered more than the required number of signatures, but after a significant number of signatures were rejected for various reasons, fell just short of the required number, depriving the citizens of Missouri the opportunity to support a worthwhile reform to the way we vote.

Given the disconnect between the will of the people of Missouri and the actions of the state legislature, some Missourians are concerned that a convention could make matters worse, rather than better, in terms of democracy in Missouri.  Those fears are understandable, but unfounded for a number of reasons:  

• Members of the General Assembly (or officials holding any other elected office) are not eligible to serve as delegates.  

• The General Assembly already has the power to put the question of a convention on the ballot “at any general or special election”.  

• A simple majority of the members of the General Assembly can already propose amendments to the Missouri Constitution at any time.  

• In both cases, the voters have the final say.  No amendments can be made to the Missouri Constitution, whether through a convention or on an amendment-by-amendment basis, without the approval of the voters.  

• The process by which delegates are elected and the business of the convention is conducted are fair and democratic.  

• Any changes to the Constitution proposed by a majority of the delegates to the convention must be ratified by the voters in order to take effect.

Here are the key details of the process taken from the Constitution itself (the full text of this section of the Missouri Constitution can be found at the bottom of this web page):

• If a majority of the votes cast thereon is for the affirmative (in favor of a convention), the governor shall call an election of delegates to the convention on a day not less than three nor more than six months after the election.  (That would be sometime between February 8, 2023 and May 8, 2023.)

• At the election the electors of the state shall elect fifteen delegates-at-large and the electors of each state senatorial district shall elect two delegates.  

• Each delegate shall possess the qualifications of a senator; and no person holding any other office of trust or profit…shall be eligible to be elected a delegate.  [Note: this means no member of the General Assembly or holding any other elected office can serve as a delegate.] 

• To secure representation from different political parties in each senatorial district, in the manner prescribed by its senatorial district committee each political party shall nominate but one candidate for delegate from each senatorial district…and the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes in each senatorial district shall be elected.  [Note: This ensures that neither of the two major political parties can dominate the convention.]

• Candidates for delegates-at-large shall be nominated by nominating petitions only, which shall be signed by electors of the state equal to five percent of the legal voters in the senatorial district in which the candidate resides.

• All such candidates shall be voted for on a separate ballot without party designation, and the fifteen receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected.

• The delegates so elected shall be convened at the seat of government by proclamation of the governor within six months after their election.

• The sessions of the convention shall be held with open doors.  (Open to the public.)

• No constitution or amendment to this constitution shall be submitted to the electors for approval or rejection unless by the assent of a majority of all the delegates-elect.

• Any proposed constitution or constitutional amendment adopted by the convention shall be submitted to a vote of the electors of the state… not less than sixty days nor more than six months after the adjournment of the convention.

• Upon the approval of the constitution or constitutional amendments the same shall take effect at the end of thirty days after the election.

As Robert M. “Fighting Bob” LaFollette (a Republican progressive of the late 19th and early 20th centuries) once said: “If the people want a government of their own, they must do the work of making it their own.”

On November 8, 2022, the citizens of Missouri have a unique opportunity to make that work much easier by voting “yes” in response to the question of whether to have a “convention to revise and amend the constitution” of Missouri.  

We can give ourselves the ability, through a convention, to propose as many amendments as needed to make the government of Missouri a true democracy – vesting all political power in the people of Missouri and making sure our state legislature reflects the will of the people - without needing to raise millions of dollars and recruit thousands of volunteers over and over again to make one change after another.