The campaign to repeal Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map turned in 300,000 signatures Tuesday to put it on the 2026 ballot. But Secretary of State Denny Hoskins says that won’t stop the map from going into effect on Thursday.
Hoskins also argued he has the power to unilaterally declare the referendum unconstitutional if it is determined enough signatures were collected to place it on the statewide ballot.
The decision to let the map go into effect is sure to go before the courts, where more than half a dozen disputes over the new district map have been filed since it was approved by the General Assembly in September. In a decision Tuesday, Cole County Circuit Judge Chris Limbaugh ruled lawmakers had the constitutional authority to enact the revised map.
Hoskins said he’s relying on an opinion from Attorney General Catherine Hanaway in his decision on whether the law takes effect, which is a departure from past precedent. Hanaway advised his office, he said, that a federal court ruling means provisions suspending a law when a referendum is pending only apply after the signatures are shown to be sufficient to force a vote.
“I’m going to follow my attorney’s opinion and the attorney general’s opinion that explicitly states that the referendum does not take place until those signatures are verified by the secretary of state,” Hoskins said in an interview Tuesday with The Independent.
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, People Not Politicians delivered 691 boxes of petition sheets bearing more than 305,000 signatures to Hoskins’ office. There are signatures from every county in the state, organizers said, and they have little doubt they will reach the threshold of about 110,000 signatures to make the 2026 ballot.
“What is important here is that the secretary of state should do the job of that office which is to process this paperwork,” Richard von Glahn, director of People Not Politicians, said during a conference call with reporters.
Reached by telephone in the afternoon, von Glahn said he has no doubt a court would rule that the map is suspended.
“The reality is they are just wrong,” he said of Hoskins and Hanaway.
If the map takes effect Thursday, county clerks and local election boards will be asked to update voter rolls to show which district includes each voter. And it means the new map would be used for candidate filing that begins in February.
The fight over redistricting began in July, when President Donald Trump began pressuring Missouri Republicans to change the map to give the GOP an edge in seven of the state’s eight districts instead of the six they currently hold.
Gov. Mike Kehoe and legislative Republicans responded with a special session in September and Trump kept up the pressure as state Senate leadership used rule changes to undercut Democratic opposition and muscle the map to passage.
The intended result from the new map is to flip the 5th District to the GOP. The district, based in Kansas City, has been represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005.
The district is carved up under the new map with portions attached to the 4th and 6th Districts. Heavily Republican areas stretching along the Missouri River to Boone County would be added to the remaining Kansas City portions.
The large number of signatures gathered in an 87-day petition campaign shows how strongly voters oppose the gerrymandered map, von Glahn said during the conference call.
“What is clear about (the redistricting plan) is that it was written by politicians with a political goal, not a goal about hearing the voices and concerns of communities,” he said.
Legal limbo
Limbaugh’s decision finding lawmakers were acting within their authority to pass a new map changes little in the overall legal landscape surrounding the plan.
The constitutional language on congressional apportionment “appears to be silent on the specific issue at hand, that is whether its language allows the legislature to conduct a second redistricting using the same census,” Limbaugh wrote. “In these situations, Missouri courts have consistently held that the legislature has the power to act unless expressly prohibited.”
By finding for the state, Limbaugh changed nothing in the legal status of whether the law takes effect on Thursday.
The last time Missourians petitioned successfully for a referendum was 2017, when legislators passed a bill implementing the anti-union right to work law.
A labor union-backed campaign to gather signatures delivered 310,000 signatures to then-Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican.
Ashcroft immediately issued a statement that the law would not take effect until the signatures had been checked and, if sufficient, subject to a statewide vote. Right to work was overwhelmingly defeated in the August 2018 election.
The Missouri Constitution states that “any measure referred to the people shall take effect when approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon, and not otherwise.”
“It is very clear,” von Glahn said. “The law is suspended.”
In a statement provided by Hoskins’ office, Hanaway said a Monday court decision dismissing a lawsuit she filed to block the referendum means the map “will go into effect on Dec. 11 and not be frozen unless and until the secretary of state certifies the referendum.”
Hanaway, on behalf of Hoskins and the General Assembly, asked U.S. District Judge Zachary Bluestone to declare referendums on congressional redistricting plans illegal under the U.S. Constitution.
Bluestone ruled he had no jurisdiction over the lawsuit and suggested that Hoskins had the power, subject to judicial review, to declare the measure violates the Missouri Constitution.
Bluestone described how that would work in a footnote to his dismissal order.
Hoskins “will have the opportunity to review the final petition for constitutionality before conducting signature verification (and) he could at least defend a finding of unconstitutionality based on the same claims the state advances in this case, and that the new map would go into effect barring a successful challenge to decertification.”
Hoskins said he reserves the right to unilaterally declare the referendum unconstitutional but said he would wait until he knows whether the petitions have sufficient signatures to make the ballot.
“That would mean after those signatures have been verified by the county clerks and submitted back to the secretary of state’s office for my certification,” Hoskins said.
If Hoskins delays a decision about constitutionality, the redistricting plan cannot take effect, von Glahn said.
“He doesn’t have to decide on that until he reviews the signatures, but if he doesn’t make a decision, the law is suspended,” von Glahn said.
Certification process
Hoskins said he will distribute the petition pages to local election authorities within two weeks, as required by law. The county clerks and boards of election will have until July 28 to check the signatures against voter rolls.
That means Missouri lawmakers will convene and adjourn next year’s regular session before the deadline for signature verification.
If the petition has sufficient signatures in six of the state’s eight congressional districts, it can be certified to be on the ballot. A referendum by petition is put to a vote in November unless lawmakers set an earlier date.
Hoskins on Tuesday said he will not distribute any signatures collected before Oct. 14. That is the date he certified the form of the referendum petition.
“The process is very clear,” Hoskins said. “You can only collect those signatures after October 14.”
That action would remove about 90,000 signatures from the number to be checked.
People Not Politicians, in another case before LImbaugh, is arguing that every signature gathered after Sept. 15, the date a final version of the petition was filed with Hoskins, should be counted.
Even if the petition could be certified on the signatures collected after Oct. 14, von Glahn said, the other signatures should be counted.
“We are going to continue to pursue that case, because it’s critically important that all Missourians’ voices are heard, not just those voices that may have participated in the process beginning Oct. 14,” he said.
The battle over the map has already generated millions of dollars in spending. People Not Politicians has raised more than $5 million and a committee dedicated to winning voter approval, Put Missouri First, has raised $2.1 million.
Hoskins said he thinks the map, as the will of the Republican majority, will win approval from voters.
“I’m hopeful that if the referendum did go on the ballot, that the referendum would fail and the Missouri First map would stand,” Hoskins said.
The large crowds at town-hall meetings and rallies, plus the more than 2,000 volunteers who gathered signatures, show how much voters dislike the plan, von Glahn said.
“Our democracy belongs to us and not to politicians,” von Glahn said, “and we’re going to have the final say.”
