Only about 200,000 of the 300,000 signatures submitted to force a statewide vote on the gerrymandered congressional map are being checked. Backers of the referendum are less than 200 signatures short of making the ballot but want all signatures reviewed
BY: RUDI KELLER
Missouri Independent
A petition to force a statewide vote on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map was less than 200 signatures away from meeting its goal Tuesday as a Cole County judge heard arguments over the status of 100,000 signatures set aside in December.
There is no doubt that People Not Politicians, the political action committee pushing for a referendum, will meet the minimum goal of 111,071 signatures spread across six of the state’s eight congressional districts, campaign director Richard von Glahn said in an interview with The Independent. That’s based on records from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ office obtained through Sunshine Law requests for individual county reports.
The petition is nearing enough valid signatures despite Hoskins’ refusal to send to local election authorities more than 100,000 signatures he claims are invalid. Hoskins has said any signatures collected before Oct. 14 — the day he certified the form of the referendum petition — don’t qualify.
If the petition succeeds in putting the map to a statewide vote, the law forced through by Republicans in September would be put on hold.
The campaign’s legal team — Chuck Hatfield and Alixandra Cossette — were in court Tuesday again asking Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh to order Hoskins to deliver the remaining signatures for validation.
On Dec. 12, Limbaugh put his decision on hold, noting that he could order the additional signatures to be checked if the petition falls short and the question would be moot if the petition is sufficient without them.
“I am worried that what is going on here is an attempt to delay all this, and whatever happens, they are going to say it is too late,” Hatfield told Limbaugh.
Attorneys Graham Miller, representing Hoskins, and Marc Ellinger, representing the Republican-backed Put Missouri First political action committee, asked Limbaugh to leave his December decision in place.
“This court’s triggers have not been met,” Miller said.
Ellinger asked Limbaugh to wait for more information.
“If they have enough signatures through the normal process, then these claims are entirely moot,” he said. “If they don’t have enough signatures through the normal process, then these claims can become live at that point.”
Limbaugh did not rule immediately, instead setting another hearing for April 7.
Republicans pushed the new map at the insistence of President Donald Trump. The GOP is worried about losing its narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Republicans control six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats and want seven. The plan passed in September targets the 5th Congressional District currently held by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas CIty Democrat.
Opponents of the plan have already lost court cases over the authority of Gov. Mike Kehoe to call the special session, the authority of lawmakers to revise the congressional map without the trigger of a new census report and whether the maps meet constitutional standards for compactness.
An appeal of the case over whether lawmakers had authority to revise the map was heard last week by the Missouri Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a decision. The decision upholding Kehoe’s authority is also being appealed.
The petition has sufficient signatures in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th congressional districts to make the ballot, according to data compiled by People Not Politician from county reports.
In the 7th Congressional District of southwest Missouri, county clerks have found 18,404 valid signatures so far, with 18,599 needed and thousands left to be checked in Greene, Jasper and Taney counties, von Glahn said.
“That does not mean we don’t care if the other 100,000 signatures aren’t reviewed or processed because what the secretary of state did to begin with is against the law and those Missourians deserve to have that petition to their government recognized,” von Glahn said.
A spokeswoman for Hoskins said previously in an email to The Independent that the numbers cited by von Glahn are “preliminary and still subject to review, verification and certification by the Missouri Secretary of State.”
If the referendum succeeds in placing the redistricting plan on a statewide ballot, the outcome is not certain, new polling from St. Louis University/YouGov shows. The poll, conducted between Feb. 9 and Feb. 22, found 44% of Missourians oppose the map, while 41% support it.
People Not Politicians has raised $6.3 million for its referendum campaign, while Put Missouri First, the Republican-backed PAC organized to promote it, has raised $3.1 million.
Under state statute, local election authorities have until July 28 to finish checking the signatures. If they take the full allowance, Hoskins would have until Aug. 11 to issue a decision on whether enough valid signatures have been found to make the ballot. The primary election this year is Aug. 4, but ballots must be finalized by June 9.
“They’re going to wait until July, and then the secretary is going to do something, and then they’re going to say, ‘Oh, well, too late to do anything about any of this, because the election is in August’,” Hatfield said. “That’s the play, and that’s what I’m trying to avoid.”