St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial: Movement is one way Missouri voters could rein in rogue Legislature

The organization “Respect Missouri Voters” is calling for volunteers to help gather signatures to get an amendment on the November 2026 ballot that would, if passed, restrict the Legislature from overturning the results of ballot initiatives. Missouri is currently one of fewer than a dozen states that doesn’t have such protections in law already.

Under the organization’s amendment, state lawmakers would be prohibited from passing any changes to voter-approved initiatives except by an 80% bipartisan supermajority vote in both chambers. It would also prohibit misleading ballot language and would bar the Legislature from making it more difficult to pass ballot initiatives.

The General Assembly has attempted the latter multiple times in recent years, with schemes to require more than a simple majority of statewide voters to pass a referendum or to require by-district majorities that would effectively disenfranchise urban voters in St. Louis and Kansas City. Those schemes have failed so far, but lawmakers are likely to keep trying — unless a constitutional amendment prevents it.

As for the other two proposed restrictions, both would have thwarted what lawmakers shamelessly did this session.

You can read the full article on the St. Louis Post Dispatch Here (Paywall).