Nov. 3 is election day. The only statewide race on the ballot is for Missouri State Auditor. There are several ballot measures where you the voter gets to decide on new laws for our citizens. From now to election day, this column will look at the pros and cons of what you will be voting on. First up is Amendment 6 (A6), it makes major permanent changes to the Initiative Petition (IP) process.

The road to the ballot was a bumpy one for A6 due to questions about whether the process followed was legal and legitimate. A court ruled it was and the Secretary of State was directed to place A6 on the November ballot.

Lt. Gov. David Wasinger expressed his concerns about A6: “The Missouri Supreme Court decision allowing Amendment 6 to remain on the November ballot may have long-term consequences for Missouri. A6 could pave the way for out-of-state billionaires and special interests to spend millions hijacking Missouri’s Constitution through the initiative petition process, locking policies into our Constitution that cannot simply be corrected by the people’s elected representatives.”

The ballot summary for A6 (74 words):

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:

Expand the initiative and referendum petition process by making it a fundamental right; allow courts to revise ballot summaries through lawsuits; prohibit the legislature from weakening initiative or referendum powers; prohibit the legislature from changing or repealing laws enacted through the initiative process, or passing laws similar to those rejected by referendum, without approval from at least 80 percent of both chambers; and preserve existing majority vote and signature requirements for initiative and referendum petitions?

The actual ballot language adds 1137 words creating new sections 54 through 59 to Article 3 of our state constitution. Initiative Petitions are not the best way to make new laws. A small group of people or maybe just one individual with enough money writes the proposed new law, then hires folks to get signatures to place it on the ballot. The proposed new laws are not vetted. There are no hearings for IP with experts debating the pros and cons. The signature collection process is often not done properly resulting in petitions with unqualified signatures. Voters who sign often do not fully understand what they are agreeing to because they are likely signing based on a one sentence sales pitch rather than reading and studying the entire bill (1137 words in this case) that actually would becomes law.

The IP process was designed to be used by “regular citizens” but the process is extremely expensive, now costing millions of dollars which typically prevents ordinary citizens from actually using it. The IP process is complex, it is not functioning well and it needs to be adjusted.

However, Amendment 6 will make a broken system much worse.

Amendment 6 preserves the current status of requiring just 50 percentage, plus one vote statewide to pass changes to our Missouri Constitution, but it raises the bar to 80 percentage  required to alter those changes later. That locks constitutional changes — good or bad — forever.

Amendment 6 has multiple subjects and therefore violates Article 3 of the Missouri constitution that states that you should vote on single subject bills only. The reason this is important is you might agree with one issue of change but disagree with another issue that you are voting on, but you must vote yes to all or no to all. That is not an ethical way to change Missouri laws.

“This is the most important amendment on the ballot. If it passes, it will begin to deconstruct our Constitutional Republic.” — Senator Joe Nicola

Missouri is a representative republic form of government. Amendment 6 empowers the wealthy to create new permanent laws while weakening our representative form of government.

Vote no on Amendment 6.

The last day to register to vote in Missouri is October 7.