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Campaign to put gerrymandered Missouri map on the ballot turns in 300,000 signatures
https://missouriindependent.com/2025/12/09/missouri-gerrymander-congressional-map-referendum/Roughly 300,000 signatures demanding Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map be placed on the 2026 ballot were submitted to the secretary of state’s office Tuesday morning — more than two and a half times the number needed.
The political action committee behind the effort, People Not Politicians, called the campaign an “unprecedented show of grassroots power.”
The ball is now in Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ court, as the first-term Republican must certify whether the signatures are valid. If so, the map is placed on hold until voters can decide its fate at the ballot box.
But several questions swirl around the signatures.
First, Hoskins has previously stated he won’t accept any signatures collected before Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the bill in October. That decision impacts around 92,000 signatures. Testifying in a Cole County courtroom on Monday in a lawsuit challenging Hoskins’ decision, the state’s director of elections said those signatures would be separated, scanned for preservation, but not distributed to county election officials for verification until Judge Chris Limbaugh rules on whether Hoskins must accept them.
Second, a Trump-appointed federal judge threw out a lawsuit Monday that argued a referendum on redistricting was unconstitutional. In the ruling, the judge said state court was the proper venue if Hoskins believes the referendum violates the constitution. That could set the stage for yet another legal showdown over the power of voters to overturn the actions of the legislature.
The political action committee behind the effort, People Not Politicians, called the campaign an “unprecedented show of grassroots power.”
The ball is now in Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ court, as the first-term Republican must certify whether the signatures are valid. If so, the map is placed on hold until voters can decide its fate at the ballot box.
But several questions swirl around the signatures.
First, Hoskins has previously stated he won’t accept any signatures collected before Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the bill in October. That decision impacts around 92,000 signatures. Testifying in a Cole County courtroom on Monday in a lawsuit challenging Hoskins’ decision, the state’s director of elections said those signatures would be separated, scanned for preservation, but not distributed to county election officials for verification until Judge Chris Limbaugh rules on whether Hoskins must accept them.
Second, a Trump-appointed federal judge threw out a lawsuit Monday that argued a referendum on redistricting was unconstitutional. In the ruling, the judge said state court was the proper venue if Hoskins believes the referendum violates the constitution. That could set the stage for yet another legal showdown over the power of voters to overturn the actions of the legislature.
Just in: Missouri organizers have turned in ≈300,000 signatures to block the GOP's new gerrymander there.
— Taniel (@taniel.bsky.social) 2025-12-09T16:48:10.662Z
That's an impressive haul in the very compressed window they had. They need roughly 110,000 signatures to succeed, though the GOP will now throw everything it has to disqualify them.
The Missouri SoS has claimed (and it's a big stretch) that any signatures collected before the governor signed the gerrymander aren't valid. But the article above says even that only affects roughly 90K signatures; that'd leave above 200K.
— Taniel (@taniel.bsky.social) 2025-12-09T16:52:54.484Z