LETTERS: VOTE AGAINST CHANGES FOR PETITIONS

To the editor:

The Missouri Constitution contains many safeguards to protect the citizenry from plutocracy and empower them to be full participants in the democratic processes of the state. No safeguard is more important than the right to initiative and referendum enshrined in Article III of the 1945 Constitution.

Constitutional Amendment No. 1 on this November's ballot seeks to weaken that power by further limiting the time allowed to collect petition signatures on initiatives. It should be defeated.

An initiative is a new law or constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by petitions. A referendum is an existing law that is referred to voters for concurrence, also through the petition process.

Only about half the states have provided the power to propose or change laws by going straight to the people. The basic form of our democracy is representational government. We elect representatives and senators to propose and enact laws that handle the affairs of state and protect the rights of the people. But the power of initiative and referendum is a sound check and balance against either an overzealous Legislature or an ineffective one.

The Legislature has never been too fond of the initiative-referendum provisions as they are often viewed as competition or even a threat to its legislative powers. Over the last two decades, the Missouri Legislature has passed at least eight bills to modify or weaken that process. And there have been at least five Supreme Court decisions modifying these statutes and the process further. Additional attempts to limit the process have not succeeded.

Before 1980, any qualified voter, registered or not, was entitled to sing a petition, and petition carriers were not required to be registered either. The amount of time allocated to collecting initiative signatures was unlimited. After 1980, only registered voters may sign or carry petitions. In 1988, the Legislature attempted to limit signature collection to less than one year, but in 1991, the Supreme Court ruled that this was not in keeping with the constitutional provisions. In 1997, legislation attempted to rectify those provisions ruled illegal. Most recently, the Legislature has attempted to ban, license or flag petition carriers who were being paid.

The hardest thing about petitioning these days is gaining public access to where people are. Most businesses severely limit or ban petition circulation even though the right to do so is guaranteed under the Constitution. Even public buildings like post offices will run off legal petition carriers.

As the rules have changes and access has become restricted, increasingly it is the Big Money folks, like riverboat casinos, who have the money to buy their way onto the ballot. Just this year, two initiative campaigns -- to limit billboards and to control campaign spending -- failed to make it due to either time constraints or money, or both.

Amendment No. 1 makes what appears to be a minor change in Section 50 of Article III. It changes the deadline for submitting initiative petitions from four months prior to an election to six months prior to an election. The Constitution now requires petitions to be fully submitted the first week of July prior to a November general election. If changed, the date will be pushed back to early April. If this provision were already in place, Proposition A to ban cockfighting and bear wrestling would have failed to get on the ballot as well.

Reducing the time allowed by even two months will only further subvert the citizens' right to address the issues directly, but it will not affect those interests with Big Money at all. Big Money already has access to the Legislature. We cannot allow them to have the only access to the initiative too.

Vote no on Amendment No. 1.

R. ROGER PRYOR

Missouri Coalition for the Environment

St. Louis