Pro & Con: Amendment 3 Has Missouri Voters Back To The Drawing Board On Legislative Districts

[Sherman A1]

Two years ago, when the Clean Missouri campaign asked Missouri voters if they wanted an overhaul of the state’s legislative redistricting system, plus some new limits on campaign finance and lobbyist gifts, the answer was a clear yes. A strong majority voted in favor of Amendment 1 on Nov. 6, 2018, and proponents of the amendment hailed its passage as a victory for political accountability.

But now the fate of the recently adopted redistricting system — which includes a nonpartisan state demographer and new criteria prioritizing “competitiveness” and “partisan fairness” — is in doubt. Some Missouri lawmakers are asking voters to reconsider and pushing for the passage of Amendment 3 this fall.

While reading the ballot language, voters may experience a sense of déjà vu, as proposed changes to two arguably distinct issues — political money and political representation — are again combined in one ballot issue. Also, the first two of Amendment 3’s three sections appear to closely piggyback on some of what Clean Missouri already sought to do, including “ban gifts from paid lobbyists to legislators and their employees” and “reduce legislative campaign contribution limits.”

The third section is the meat of the issue, where Amendment 3 asks voters to “change the redistricting process voters approved in 2018 [by] transferring responsibility for drawing state legislative districts from the Nonpartisan State Demographer to Governor-appointed bipartisan commissions [and] modifying and reordering the redistricting criteria.”

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2020-10-20/pro-con-amendment-3-has-missouri-voters-back-to-the-drawing-board-on-legislative-districts