The Voice - Bonita Gooch

The group, Respect MO Voters Coalition, submitted more than 367,000 signatures Sunday to the Secretary of State’s office, aiming to place a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot.

Missouri Independent - Faith Jacoby

A group called the Respect MO Voters Coalition turned in what it called a record-breaking number of petition signatures on Sunday to the Secretary of State’s office for a proposed constitutional amendment to appear on the 2026 ballot.

Competing measures could reshape how Missouri voters amend the Constitution, with one protecting access and another raising approval thresholds statewide.

The political action committee Respect Missouri Voters submitted 367,000 signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State on Sunday for an initiative petition that would require Secretary Denny Hoskins to write clear and unbiased ballot language.

KOMU - Makinsey Drake

JEFFERSON CITY — Hundreds gathered with the Respect Missouri Voters coalition as the group submitted petition signatures for a constitutional amendment that aims to protect Missouri's initiative petition process Sunday.

The Respect Missouri Voters campaign submitted more than 367,000 signatures on a petition to get their question in front of voters. Hundreds of volunteers from across the state gathered at noon to submit the petitions, more than double the number required to qualify the citizen initiative for the 2026 ballot.

Kansas City Star - Kacen Bayless

Missouri legislators have over the past several years sought to overhaul the state’s initiative petition process, a more than a century-old form of direct democracy that allows voters to collect signatures and put policy measures to a statewide vote.

STLPR - Jason Rosenbaum

Backers of the Respect Missouri Voters initiative said they delivered more than 350,000 signatures to Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ office on Sunday. If they reach certain signature thresholds in six out of eight congressional districts, the proposed constitutional amendment will be on the November ballot.

Respect Missouri Voters sponsored a food drive benefiting the St. James Caring Center’s food distribution programs and a total of $642 was donated to the Caring Center.

These funds play a critical role in supplementing shortages during Commodity Day Food Distribution, ensuring that families continue to receive essential groceries even when supply levels fluctuate. The Caring Center’s primary source of food items is the Food Bank of Missouri, which has reduced its allocations to the Center by approximately 40%. This significant decrease has made it increasingly challenging to maintain full grocery baskets for the community.

Respect Missouri Voters sponsored a food drive benefiting the St. James Caring Center’s food distribution programs and a total of $642 was donated to the Caring Center.

These funds play a critical role in supplementing shortages during Commodity Day Food Distribution, ensuring that families continue to receive essential groceries even when supply levels fluctuate. The Caring Center’s primary source of food items is the Food Bank of Missouri, which has reduced its allocations to the Center by approximately 40%. This significant decrease has made it increasingly challenging to maintain full grocery baskets for the community.

In recent years, state ballot initiatives have served as powerful tools to advance economic opportunity for working families. Voters directly have raised the minimum wage, secured paid sick leave, protected abortion access, enacted bail reform, expanded Medicaid, and increased funding for public education—all popular progressive economic policies that some state legislatures have failed to enact. However, some conservative state legislatures have responded by overturning or limiting recent wins. And in the few Southern states where voters can access ballot measures—Arkansas, Florida, and Oklahoma—conservative legislators are waging war against the ballot initiative process itself, attempting to obstruct the will of voters and make it permanently more difficult for the public to directly decide on policy choices.

Through his internship with Northwest’s Center of Policy and Civic Engagement, a Northwest political science major has had the opportunity to host his own ballot initiative educational event.

Senior Kent Onishi hosted his Ballot Initiative Talk March 10 to allow attendees to learn about the process. Associate Professor of Political Science Jessica Gracey and RespectMoVoters St. Joseph Field Director Nancy Zeliff spoke alongside Onishi.

Since organizing the Voters Not Politicians 2018 ballot initiative that put citizens in charge of drawing Michigan's legislative maps, Katie Fahey has been the founding executive director of The People, which is forming statewide networks to promote government accountability. She regularly interviews colleagues in the democracy reform world for our Opinion section.

Benjamin Singer has led successful state and local democracy reform campaigns with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents for over a decade. Currently, Benjamin serves as Co-Founder and Campaign Director of Respect Missouri (MO) Voters, a cross-partisan, volunteer-led coalition working to protect the citizen initiative process to build a more ethical, effective government of, by, and for the people.trict.

People gathered Thursday night in Jefferson City to strategize against what many see as an attack on Missouri voters.

Missouri lawmakers have proposed a constitutional change to make the initiative petition process more strict.

“Respect Missouri Voters” sponsored an informational meeting Tuesday at the Heckart Community Center, 1800 W. 3rd Street, in Sedalia, concerning the citizen initiative petition process.

 Moderating the meeting was Alex Johnson, field director for Respect Mo Voters. The first half of the town hall meeting was educational, explaining how the initiative petition process works in Missouri. The second half was a training session for those wanting to volunteer to gather signatures of registered voters in the 4th Congressional District.

Alisa Nelson talks to Benjamin Singer, the co-founder of a campaign gathering signatures to ask Missouri voters to ban the state legislature from overturning the will of the people.

Sedalia residents with Respect MO Voters are planning a town hall on Tuesday, February 10 about how Missouri’s citizen ballot initiative process works, and how citizens can stop politicians from attacking this century-old freedom.

The Respect Missouri Voters Campaign hosted an event in Des Peres Wednesday celebrating a milestone in their effort to put a measure on the ballot.

A statewide coalition wants to put an end to what its members see as the Missouri Legislature’s penchant for overturning laws passed directly by voters.

Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals unanimously tossed out part of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’s ballot language on Thursday for an initiative petition that would bar state funding of private education.