Citizens and editorial boards from across the state continue to condemn a radical gerrymandering proposal, SJR38, that Missouri House leaders passed in a sham hearing last week.
Reforms requiring fair maps and fair redistricting were added to the state constitution in 2018 with an overwhelming bipartisan mandate, after a two year campaign of signature gathering, coalition building, and public education. By election day, the Clean Missouri Amendment had been endorsed by every major anti-gerrymandering organization, both conservative and progressive reformers, civil rights champions, and a diverse list of Republican and Democratic leaders who had seen firsthand how Missouri’s old redistricting process was abused by partisan actors.
Opposition to the politicians’ new proposal, SJR38, stems from two outrageous facts:
- Politicians are attempting to overturn the voters’ 2018 mandate for fair maps with a deceptive new constitution amendment, and
- They are proposing a radical new redistricting system unlike anything Missouri has ever seen that seeks to rig the game before new maps are drawn in 2021.
Fair map rules passed in every state senate district in 2018, from rural regions to our big cities, and opposition to new gerrymandering plans has come from all parts of the state in recent days and weeks.
In the Joplin Globe:
“Voters are not clamoring for these changes. Lawmakers are seeking them for their own ends regardless of the will of the people. Legislators would be better off if they sought to respond to the real needs and priorities of voters rather than pursuing political advantage by selecting the mix of voters to make their seats more secure. It is time to trust the will of the electorate.”
“There is no reason for legislators to try to undo what 62 percent of the voters approved in 2018 with the Clean Missouri initiative…[T]he voters have spoken, and the plan they adopted should go forward.”
“There are only two ways to interpret these willful attempts to overturn elections. Legislators must think:
- Voters are too stupid to be trusted.
- They don’t care what voters think because either they know better, or their interests are more important than voters’ interests.”
This weekend in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“Forcing voters to reconsider an issue they’ve already decided is insulting enough. Doing it while a pandemic prevents full public debate is doubly so.”
In the Kansas City Star:
“Missourians should also be outraged by suggestions that legislators want to regroup so they can try to overturn the Clean Missouri ethics and redistricting initiative passed by voters in 2018. Think about that for a moment: Some lawmakers are so intent on overturning the will of the people they would risk sickness and death in the midst of a pandemic for partisan purposes.”
In the Washington Missourian:
“That strong voter approval on Amendment 1 means nothing to some members of the General Assembly… don’t try to tell us the voters didn’t understand the redistricting provision. The voters knew what they were doing when they approved Amendment 1.”
“Voters have already delivered an overwhelming bipartisan mandate for fair maps,” said Sean Soendker Nicholson, campaign manager for Clean Missouri. “The politicians should listen to their voters, and focus on the real problems facing all of us.”
The politicians’ map-rigging plan, SJR38, seeks to:
- gut or undermine all of the fair map reforms overwhelmingly supported by Missouri voters in the last election;
- take away Missourians’ constitutional rights to fair legislative maps;
- protect incumbent legislators in safe districts, so voters can’t hold them accountable;
- give state political parties new powers to appoint map makers;
- explicitly allow political operatives and lobbyists to draw some of the most polarizing district lines in America;
- limit Missourians’ ability to have their day in court if maps are rigged or unfairly target a community or group; and
- limit what judges can do if legislative districts break state law requirements.