Missourians! Know What's On Amendment 3 This November!

Coming up in November, with our election, is Amendment 3. We need to know what's in it and what's being attempted.

Below is the language for Amendment 3-The Dirty Missouri Amendment that is about rigging maps to protect incumbent politicians-that will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

It is important to read the entire amendment. If one only reads the first two sections you might be inclined to vote yes, but it is a definite NO vote you should cast.

Don’t be fooled by the first two sections. It would reduce the lobbyist gift limit by $5 dollars only and it would lower the contribution limit for state senate candidates by only $100 - That’s it. That’s the list. That’s how politicians are hoping to dupe you. It is the remainder of the ballot that does the damage to Missouri voters and would reinstate gerrymandered districts and make it all but impossible for voters to oust embedded and corrupt politicians.

Why are politicians trying to overturn the will of Missouri voters?

2020 is politicians’ last chance to set things up for gerrymandered maps in 2021 that would last through 2030. They want: 

• Unfair, noncompetitive districts to limit voters’ ability to hold their leaders accountable
• New rules to let lobbyists and political operatives draw lines in back rooms
• Explicit allowances for extreme partisan gerrymandering
• To not count kids or non-citizens in Missouri’s population
• Unprecedented restrictions on citizens’ abilities to challenge unfair maps in court

In 2018 Missourians voted 2 to 1 for clean government reforms. The Republicans said Missouri voters didn’t know what we were doing-WE DID-and now they want to overturn the will of the people - and have succeeded in getting confusing language on the ballot.

For more details go to https://www.cleanmissouri.org/dirty-missouri/

Ballot language is below -

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: 

• Ban gifts from paid lobbyists to legislators and their employees: • Reduce legislative campaign contribution limits: 

• Change the redistricting process voters approved in 2018 by: (i) transferring responsibility for drawing state legislative districts from the Nonpartisan State Demographer to Governor-appointed bipartisan commissions: (ii) modifying and reordering the redistricting criteria. State governmental entities expect no cost or savings. Individual local governmental entities expect significant decreased revenues of a total unknown amount.

VOTE NO

Link:

Clean Missouri - Join us Today!

Missourians!! On That Vote Tomorrow!!

Missourians!

On that Election tomorrow!

Here you are!  Vote!!  And make sure these are your votes!!

Yes on 2!

Yes for healthcare!

No on 3!!

No on Republican Party gerrymandering!

Clean Missouri

What is the Clean Missouri Initiative?

Vote 'NO' on Clean Missouri ballot issue No. 3 on Nov. 3

Missourians! You Need to Know About

There is an extremely important vote coming up in Missouri soon and we all need to know about it.

In the past few decades, gerrymandering masterminds have been working on new ways to sort voters into districts so their preferred politicians can't be held accountable. Sometimes they try to change who counts in maps — and sometimes they try to rig the math to skew maps and take away voters' voices.

But a bipartisan coalition of reformers, academics, and leaders has been fighting back to find new ways to identify and quantify bias in maps and pass new reforms that put voters and communities first. (Some politicians really, really hate these reformers, but we'll get to that).

Here are 3 things you need to know about what’s in Amendment 3:

1. Amendment 3 would flip the voter-approved rules on their head to explicitly allow partisan gerrymandering.

In the Missouri constitution now, clear rules ensure no party will have an unfair advantage in legislative district maps. Essentially, the constitution requires future map-drawers to do the best they can to limit partisan bias in maps.

Instead of limiting gerrymandering, Amendment 3 would give the political operatives and lobbyists tasked with drawing maps the permission to gerrymander Missouri maps in extreme ways that would silence voters of both parties. It's insidious, it's gross, it's un-American — but it's right there in the fine print.

2. Amendment 3 would explicitly allow our state legislative maps to be more gerrymandered and more extreme than any other state legislative plan.

At the nonpartisan research website, Planscore.org, statisticians have analyzed state legislative plans from across the country — and literally no other statehouse plan is as gerrymandered as Amendment 3 would allow.

3. Amendment 3 would explicitly allow our statehouse maps to be gerrymandered more than any other state legislative plan in 40 years — since Mississippi in 1979.

It gets worse. The math in the fine print of Amendment would allow state legislative maps to be:

• More gerrymandered than any other statehouse plan in America.
• More gerrymandered than any other statehouse plan in 40 years.
• More gerrymandered than any other statehouse plan since 1979. In Mississippi.

It's on us to stop this insanity from going into our state constitution. The politicians behind Amendment 3 are going to want to talk about anything besides the real goal of their proposal, which is to rig maps so incumbents can't be held accountable by their constituents.

If you haven't yet, make sure you sign up to volunteer virtually with the No On 3 team. Together, we're going to stop the politicians trying to dupe voters — and we're going to defeat Amendment 3. Sign up to volunteer today.

Links:

Vote NO on Politicians' Dirty Missouri Amendment

#3on3: The worst gerrymander in America

Washington Missourian: Dirty Missouri is an “odious” measure

Joplin Globe: “Listen to Jack Danforth and vote ‘no'”

NAACP Kansas City Chapter President: Dirty Missouri “outrageous even by Jeff City standards”

Say “no” to Amendment 3, Jeff City’s corrupt gerrymandering scheme

Republicans In Jefferson City Try to Undo the People's Will

Do you think it’s okay for legislators to overturn legislation the people voted into law?

The people passed Clean Missouri Amendment passed in 2018 by 62% of the vote.

The Missouri Republican Party wants to overturn this amendment. The reason is power. This amendment will control the power the Republicans have.

Citizens Sue to Block Politicians’ Dishonest Ballot Language on Dirty Missouri Amendment

In case you aren't completely familiar with what the Clean Missouri initiative is.

What is the Clean Missouri Initiative?

From The Missouri Times

The proposed constitutional amendment would do what legislators have failed to do, imposing gift limits for legislators, lowering campaign contribution limits, changing the length of time required before becoming lobbyists, and change the model for drawing districts in order to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

The Clean Missouri Initiative proposes to clean up the Show-Me State’s ethics with the following actions:

• Require that lawmakers wait two years before they could turn around and lobby their colleagues. (Governor Eric Greitens called for a revolving door ban from the legislature, and established a lobbying ban for employees departing from the executive branch with his executive order signed on January 9, 2017.)
• Eliminate almost all lobbyist gifts worth more than $5 (As of publishing this article, Members of the General Assembly, along with their staff and families, have already accepted over $1 million in gifts from lobbyists this year. Sen. Mike Kehoe had put together a bill with similar language, calling it the “Cup of Coffee” bill, implying that lobbyists wouldn’t be able to spend more than they would on a cup of coffee. Rep. Justin Alferman had also filed a bill, the first one passed by the House in 2017, but neither bill advanced in the Senate.)
• Eliminate partisan gerrymandering when it comes to redrawing lines for legislative districts and make the races more fair and competitive. (To do this, the petition calls for an independent state demographer to lead on technical work in creating district maps, which would then be reviewed by a citizen commission.)
• Set campaign donation limits at $2,500 for the state Senate and $2,000 for the House. (The current state law, as set forth by Constitutional Amendment 2, which passed in the Nov. 2016 election, sets the mark at $2,600.)
• Limiting the ability of individuals and organizations to circumvent the contribution cap limits by counting the money from single-source committees toward the totals for the actual original donors.
• Put an end to legislative fundraising on state property
• Require legislative records and proceedings to be open to the public

In an editorial published by the Kansas City Star, Sen. Rob Schaaf endorsed the Clean Missouri Initiative, saying it would solve many of the problems “corrupting the state government.”

How or why should any legislator or political party in our state be against any of the above?

With that, we ask that you please call or write Governor Mike Parson and tell him you want and we all need, deserve, a veto on this obvious power grab. His number is number (573) 751-3222.

Links:

Fight over Clean Missouri heads to courtroom