Good news from Missouri Supreme Court on ballot initiatives
Barb ShellyGood for the Missouri Supreme Court.
Refused to go along with a campaign of obfuscation, its judges have upheld the ballot language and financial summaries on three voter initiatives. That greatly increases the chances that Missouri voters in November will have the chance to weigh in on a tobacco tax increase, restrictions on payday lenders, and a minimum wage increase.
All that’s left now is for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office to certify that supporters of the initiatives gathered the required number of valid voter signatures.
The Supreme Court ruling is very satisfying because the three initiatives are the result of grass-roots campaigns. Much of the work was done by volunteers, as opposed to paid signature gatherers.
Rather than debate these issues in a campaign, opponents tried to head them off in the courts. They even challenged the authority of the state auditor to prepare fiscal summaries, even though a longstanding Missouri statute requires the auditor to do so.
Well, it didn’t work. Perhaps now we can look forward to a fair and open debate on these important issues.
Mark Hastert
9 months, 3 weeks agoThe opponents seem to believe that if you can’t win on the merits then win on a technicality.
Paul Austin
9 months, 2 weeks agoShelly, you are biggest liar since YT EVER! Grass-root as opposed to PAID SIGNATURE GATHERS! Since you’re such a suck-up to the MFHE you might want to examine the hundreds of thousands to PAY petition gathering services: http://mec.mo.gov/EthicsWeb/CampaignFinance/CF_CommInfo.aspx?MECID=C121042&Year=2012 before you shoot your mouth off about your altruistic conspirators. Little wonder journalists are ranked just above ambulance chasers and used car salesmen with jerks like you spewing forth tripe! Fair & open debate, my eye. All the electorate can expect is a blizzard of ambiguous TV ads and a mountain of print flyers WITHOUT any form of dissent or critique.