Carl Bearden and Andrew Brain for the Kansas City Star: “Fellow Missouri conservatives, we must keep petition power in the hands of the people”

For more than 100 years, Missouri voters from all sides of the political spectrum have relied on ballot measures to directly pass laws, such as constitutional limits on state and local taxation and spending. However, some status quo politicians in our state are now trying to block citizen ballot initiative petitions in a desperate power grab.

Attacks on the ballot initiative petition process in Missouri are not new — and usually arise after an issue passes that the party in power does not like. It happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s under Democratic majorities, and is happening once again under Republican majorities. Neither party was, or is, correct.

The initiative process is a power and freedom that we the people have reserved to ourselves to check and be independent of the General Assembly. Elected lawmakers and wealthy special interests want to rig this system, preferring instead to keep all the power to themselves by making it harder for Missourians to place important reforms on the ballot. They even want to make it easier to overturn the public’s vote.

The General Assembly and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft should listen to our former Gov. John Ashcroft’s statement when he vetoed efforts to suppress the use of the ballot initiative:

“It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people. The General Assembly should be reluctant, therefore, to enact legislation which places any impediments on the initiative power which are inconsistent with the reservation found in the constitution.”

Ashcroft vetoed such attacks on June 27, 1992. He provided several reasons for his veto of the bill that equally apply to those proposals being offered today by members of the legislature:

• The initiative petition is a power the people have reserved to themselves.

• The law would repress citizen involvement and increase costs for collection and litigation.

• The law added burdensome filing requirements that would result in chilling citizen participation.

• Any resulting attempts to change a petition after it is filed would result in additional delays.

The freedom to have a say on important issues is a fundamental right — and Missouri’s 115-year-old ballot measure process allows voters to circumvent partisan divides and directly get things done for the people.

Efforts to modernize the initiative petition process are perfectly acceptable, including digitizing the paperwork and avoiding superfluous submissions through a minimal refundable filing fee.

But the legislature should resist further changes that would create massive roadblocks to access or inject politics into the people’s use of their reserved power. For example, Senate Joint Res. 31 would raise approval and signature thresholds to practically unattainable levels. This would effectively cut off use of the process for in-state volunteer and grassroots efforts, reserving it only for those with money and resources from large national groups.

What cannot change is the fundamental principle associated with an issue. Gov. Ashcroft laid out the principle of protecting and not impeding access to the initiative process by the people in his veto statement. That principle remains unchanged today.

It’s time to fight back against these misguided efforts to ensure that our laws truly reflect the will of the people. It’s time for Republican leadership in the General Assembly to fight this political censorship. We call on Missourians to join the Conservatives Against Corruption coalition to defend our liberties. It’s time for politicians to take their hands off our freedom.

Carl Bearden, a St. Charles Republican, is the CEO of the 501(c)(4) nonprofit United for Missouri and the former speaker pro tem of the Missouri House of Representatives. Andrew Brain is the CEO of Brain Group in Kansas City and board member of the 501(c)(4) nonprofit Show Me Integrity.

Read the op-ed on its original platform here.