Missouri House sends initiative petition bill back to Senate with 'ballot candy' reinstated

Legislation seeking to make it harder to change Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process was approved by the Missouri House on Thursday, sending it back to the Senate for a possible showdown between Republicans and Democrats over “ballot candy.”

The bill was initially approved earlier this year after Democrats ended their 21-hour filibuster in exchange for the removal of “ballot candy” provisions — referring to unrelated additions to a ballot measure designed to win voters who are skeptical of a proposal’s main focus.

On Thursday, the House added language to the bill that would ask Missourians if they want to change the constitution to define legal voters as citizens of the United States as well as whether they want to prohibit foreign entities from sponsoring initiative petitions.

Democrats called the additions “unnecessary” and “deceptive.”

“This feels to me like another situation where this body is being asked to bend to the will of the Senate,” said state Rep. Eric Woods, a Democrat from Kansas City. “We are putting this bad stuff back on to send it back over there and watch the Senate explode again as if we aren’t already in enough turmoil in this building.”



https://missouriindependent.com/2024/04/25/missouri-initiative-petition-bill-ballot-candy-reinstated/