The 2023 Missouri legislative session ended on May 12 and Missouri politicians couldn’t come to an agreement about how to restrict the ballot initiative process. RepresentUs has been a long time member of the coalition working to block these restrictive efforts in Missouri and this outcome represents a win for democracy in the state.

Defeat Bill HJR #43. Currently, in order for a ballot initiative to become a law in Missouri a “majority” of voters must approve it. This proposed bill would amend the Missouri constitution to require approval from 10% of legal voters and ⅔ of the votes cast to pass an initiative which would make it much harder for citizen-led initiatives to become law.

When voters take lawmaking into their own hands by passing citizen’s initiatives, time and time again we’ve seen self-serving lawmakers respond by trying to interfere with the initiative process. This bill would make passing initiatives nearly impossible in Missouri, and institute the highest voting threshold required for initiative passage in the country.

RepresentUs is working with a coalition of partners including BISC, The Fairness Project, Jobs for Justice and Clean MO.