In just one month, People Not Politicians has collected over 100,000 signatures from Missourians outraged by the state’s illegal gerrymandered maps. Today, the Missouri Secretary of State’s office issued a press release approving the referendum petition — but also spread false and misleading information about the citizen referendum process.
In the release, Secretary Hoskins falsely claims, without citation or legal authority, that “no signatures gathered before this approval date are valid, and doing so constitutes a misdemeanor election offense.” This is flatly untrue and an attack on Missouri voters.
The Missouri Constitution is clear: to begin gathering signatures for a citizen referendum, only a cover sheet must be submitted — not approved. Signatures collected before the Secretary’s approval are entirely valid and lawful.
The campaign has been transparent from the start. In September, People Not Politicians held a public briefing explaining the citizen referendum process in detail. That recording can be found here.
The following statement can be attributed to Richard von Glahn, Executive Director of People Not Politicians Missouri and a veteran of more than ten statewide initiative petition campaigns:
“Secretary Hoskins is deliberately spreading misinformation for political purposes. Our campaign has gathered signatures at a historic pace — I’ve never seen Missourians unite and mobilize this quickly.
We will not be intimidated or distracted. This referendum will qualify, and Missourians — not politicians — will decide the future of fair representation in our state.”
People Not Politicians is a nonpartisan coalition of Missourians, the coalition continues to grow, with new partners including the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and Health Forward Foundation.
For over 150 years, the citizen referendum has stood as one of Missouri’s strongest democratic checks on political power. It guarantees Missourians the right to hold their leaders accountable and ensure that the will of the people — not political insiders — shapes the state’s laws.
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