Missouri proposal would create nation's toughest standard for citizen-led constitutional amendments

(AP) — Over the past several years, Missouri voters have amended the state constitution to create abortion rights, legalize marijuana and sports betting and expand Medicaid healthcare coverage for low-income adults. No other state has such a high standard — or has even asked voters to consider it.“This is a first-of-its-kind,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a national group that backs progressive ballot initiatives like the ones Missouri's Republican lawmakers are hoping to quelch.“It would be nearly impossible for citizens to participate meaningfully in any sort of direct democracy,” said Hall, who believes other states could try to copy Missouri's proposal.Lawmakers seek to rein in citizen initiativesThe Missouri proposal is the culmination of years of attempts by lawmakers in numerous states to raise the bar for citizen-initiated petitions to qualify for the ballot and win voter approval. Some elected officials contend lawmaking is best left to themselves — the people's representatives — because citizen initiatives lack the vetting that comes from the multistep legislative process of public hearings, debates and revisions.The effort to curtail citizen initiatives on state ballots comes as President Donald Trump pushes for greater restrictions on who can vote and how ballots are cast, asserting the integrity of elections is at stake.Missouri’s measure “fits into the larger narrative and story around what the future of democracy looks like in the United States,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which supports progressive ballot measures.Citizen initiatives are allowed only in some statesAbout one-third of U.S.

states allow people to bypass their legislatures by gathering signatures to place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. Several others allow the process for proposed laws.In most of those states, a simple majority of voters is all that’s needed to approve constitutional amendments.