Those wondering if a fair election is still possible in America can look to its heartland for some significant red flags.
There are massive warning signs in Missouri that portend an “any means necessary” approach for the GOP in the midterm elections.
While voters were still casting ballots in the state’s primary election on Aug. 4, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced he would refuse to certify more than 600,000 signatures gathered by Missourians to put two issues on the upcoming ballot.
He had been sitting on these ballot initiative petitions since January. Then, poof — at the 11th hour, he threw away the countless hours of work from fellow citizens trying to get their voices heard.
One ballot question, supported by a petition with 305,968 signatures, would have forced a public vote on the state’s new gerrymandered, Republican-drawn map. With the support of Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, Hoskins argued that redistricting decisions cannot be subject to referendum by the voters.
This calculated move keeps in place the GOP’s map, which was redone after President Donald Trump urged red states to redraw maps to give Republicans an advantage in the upcoming midterms. The GOP’s Missouri map increases the state’s six Republican-likely districts to seven by redrawing a district represented by a Black congressman, leaving only one Democratic-leaning district in the state.
The group behind the signature drive, People Not Politicians Missouri, pointed to a 1922 precedent when Missouri voters successfully overturned a similar gerrymander via referendum. Hoskins dismissed the precedent, saying it was not tested in court.
Hoskins’ move reeks of a deliberate attempt to delay the process to suppress the voice of voters in the state. The dispute already complicated this year’s primary elections, which were held under maps whose legal status remained unresolved.
Confusion, delays and suppression are tools used by those afraid of what voters might do at the polls.
Hoskins also rejected 367,741 signatures Missourians collected for an initiative that would force state lawmakers to respect the will of voters on statewide ballot initiatives. Our state’s GOP supermajority-controlled legislature is notorious for overturning the will of voters when it goes against their interests or personal beliefs.
Of course, both these decisions will be challenged in court. Hoskins has a poor track record there, but the point isn’t to win in court. The GOP’s goal is to delay the process until it’s too late to fix the maps or get either initiative on the ballot in November.
People wring their hands when less than a third of voters turn out for primary elections. “Why don’t people care enough to vote?” they ask. Look no further than the GOP throwing out more than 600,000 signatures like yesterday’s trash — on Election Day, no less.
The irony is not lost on us.
Consider why politicians might want citizens to see their signatures, their votes and their voices disregarded. It’s because a discouraged and hopeless populace tends to give up, letting its leaders avoid being held to account.
But Missouri voters aren’t helpless or hopeless. On that same Election Day, voters delivered a resounding, overwhelming blow to this cabal of Republican leadership. Two statewide amendments — one that would eliminate income tax and raise sales taxes, and another that would heavily restrict the ballot initiative process — lost in every county in the state, with more than 80% of voters rejecting both.
Rank-and-file Republican voters turned out in large numbers against proposals backed by their own top leadership.
There are critical messages for the rest of the country in what went down last Tuesday night in the heartland.
There are too many politicians drunk on their own power, willing to ignore precedent and laws, ready to invalidate any election outcome they don’t like. They are brazenly acting on this agenda, and it must be called out.
And, more importantly, there’s still power in mobilizing people.
Never quit fighting.
Aisha Sultan is a St. Louis-based journalist who studies parenting in the digital age while trying to keep up with her tech-savvy children. Find her on social media: @AishaS.