Amendment 3 aims to reverse 'Clean Missouri'

Redistricting has been a hot topic across the nation for the past few years, and it has once again made it’s way onto Missouri ballot measures in 2020.

Missouri Amendment 3 — the Redistricting Process and Criteria, Lobbying and Campaign Finance Amendment — is on the ballot Nov. 3 as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment.

A “yes” vote will amend Article III of the Missouri Constitution to change certain provisions of Missouri Amendment 1, often referred to as “Clean Missouri,” which passed in 2018 with 62% of the vote, according to ballotpedia.

Amendment 3 asks that the Missouri Constitution to be amended to: change the threshold of lobbysists’ gifts from $5 to $0; lower the campaign contribution limit for state Senate campaigns from $2,500 to $2,400; 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 again, and modifying and reordering the redistricting criteria.

Mike Armstrong of the Missouri chapter of Americans for Prosperity said the biggest change on Amendment 3 is the portion about redistricting, which will return the system to the way it was before 2018.

In 2018, the “Clean Missouri” initiative aimed to change how congressional districts are drawn in an effort to ensure “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness.”

“[Amendment 3] is more about keeping communities together and having regular shapes,” Armstrong said. “Regardless of whether or not that is politically balanced in the House and Senate doesn’t matter as much as [keeping communities together] matters.”

Amendment 3 was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Dan Hegeman, and the campaign for the “Clean Missouri” initiative in 2018 was run by a Democratic consultant.

As stated in a 2018 article by Associated Press, Republicans hold commanding majorities in the Missouri House and Senate, with Democrats primarily relegated to representing residents in the state’s largest cities. “Clean Missouri” could put a dent in that by forcing legislative districts to be drawn to reflect the parties’ share of the statewide vote in previous elections for president, governor and U.S. senator, where democrats typically run closer to Republicans.

“National Republican and Democratic groups are pouring millions into legislative and gubernatorial races to try to better position themselves for the next round of redistricting following the 2020 census,” according to the article.

Amendment 3 and the “Clean Missouri” initiative in 2018 have both undergone scrutiny by the opposing parties.

According to the Kansas City Star, Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled the summary of Amendment 3 that was to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot, written by Republican lawmakers, was “insufficient and unfair” because it failed to inform voters that adopting the amendment would “eliminate redistricting rules Missourians overwhelmingly adopted two years ago to combat political gerrymandering and replace them with a redistricting process similar in substance to the one they just voted to abandon.”

According to a 2018 article by Associated Press, Republican-aligned attorneys urged Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green to block Missourians from voting on the “Clean Missouri” ballot because it violated the state constitution by addressing multiple subjects. Attorney Eddie Greim, representing a Republican voter who sued, said the initiative wrapped a “fundamental change to our democracy” with popular causes such as lobbyist gifts and could result in residents getting “hoodwinked into voting for something that the majority didn’t really want.”

It is unclear when the two parties will reach a compromise regarding redistricting, but Missouri voters will have the chance at a re-do on Nov. 3.