College Democrats gather signatures for Statewide petitions

In response to Governor Mike Kehoe’s recent legislation regarding ballot initiatives and redistricting, Truman students signed petitions tabled by the College Democrats in the Student Union Building. Kehoe’s legislature has returned reproductive freedom to the November ballot with amendment three, and Missouri’s gerrymandering before November’s election.

Associate professor of political science Meg Edwards said Protect Missouri Voters is a grassroots campaign to protect the citizen initiative process by banning politicians from overturning voter-approved ballot measures. Edwards said this petition protects the right to petition.  

“Ballot initiatives give Missourians an opportunity to give their opinion about policies,” Edwards said. “The benefits are that people get to have a say, but [there are] some costs. You have to write it in a way that’s easy for people to understand. It has to be something that you have knowledge about and that would matter, so there’s some things that are just very hard to put to a valid measure.”

Edwards said that not every state has ballot initiatives like Missouri does. Edwards said she has lived in other states without ballot initiatives, and those states function differently than Missouri’s legislative process.

Edwards said ballot initiatives give Missourians the opportunity to make policy for citizens to vote on, instead of strictly Missouri’s politicians. 

“I think the initiative petition process is important for Missouri when it comes to policy,” Edwards said. “My concern is [that] I don’t want to make it harder to change the Missouri Constitution beyond a certain point…But the idea is that initiatives provide us that opportunity to talk about policies at a citizen level.”

College Democrat member Bella Cignetti tabled both petitions last semester. Cignetti said students consistently signed both petitions, but only Respect Missouri Voters will be petitioned during the spring semester, as it has a later deadline. Cignetti said Respect Missouri Voters had a focus on the gerrymandering efforts.

“[The Missouri legislature] is trying to [redraw] Missouri congressional districts,” Cignetti said. “Considering about 40% of voters actually vote Democrat instead of Republican, it would drop everyone down to maybe one to two seats out of all of Missouri, even though that’s not reflective of the actual voting, and that’s because they would be splitting up Kansas City and St. Louis.”

The gerrymandering efforts passed in the Missouri legislature, despite the number of signatures Protect Missouri Voters accumulated. However, Respect Missouri Voters is still open for signatures. 

Cignetti said students should care about state politics. Cignetti said the issue is bipartisan, and these changes affect both political parties negatively. 

“You should be, as an individual and as a citizen of the United States, involved in your government, because democracy is not effective unless everyone is retaliating,” Cignetti said. “You don’t have to protest on the streets every day, but you do need to use your rights because if you’re not using your right to vote [for] protecting your rights, the state could flip and your [vote] would be then undermined by the Democrat party.”