just saw this discussion about Amendment 3 on Reddit and thought I'd pass it along [View all]
Maybe similar things are going on in other states too. I live in Oregon, where we get a voter's pamphlet and we can spend as long as we want to in the comfort of our homes, reading through the amendments and thinking carefully about our vote, but I assume this isn't true everywhere.
What I read is that Amendment 3 (in Missouri) is a sneaky way to try to allow gerrymandering. According to r/meandrunkR2D2 on Reddit, the first part is stuff that people would be for, but then a part is added that would allow the governor to appoint a group of his/her choosing to do the redistricting.
Also, here's a link from Common Cause.
https://www.commoncause.org/our-work/gerrymandering-and-representation/gerrymandering-redistricting/clean-missouri-initiative/
(The measure would:
Eliminate the position of nonpartisan demographer, who is selected in a bipartisan manner to draw state legislative districts, and returns the power to draw districts back to a redistricting commission that is handpicked by elected officials.
Eliminate strict protections against drawing districts for partisan advantage and allows one party to enjoy a mathematical advantage that would match some of the worst state legislative gerrymanders in the last 40 years.
Make Missouri the only state in the country to make approximately children and non-citizens invisible in our democracy by drawing districts based only on citizens of voting age. All states draw congressional districts based on total population and almost all of them also draw state legislative districts that way. No state excludes all children and non-citizens from being counted for redistricting purposes.)