Daniel Romine for the Springfield News-Leader: “Conservatives must resist legislative attacks on the citizen ballot initiative process”
In February, the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee held a hearing on various pieces of legislation that seek to attack Missouri’s 116-year old ballot initiative process, including H.J.R. 43, S.J.R. 2 and S.J.R. 5. I attended this hearing and presented testimony in defense of the initiative process, as did many others. The number of people testifying against the legislation far outnumbered those testifying in favor.
Strong conservative voices spoke out at the hearing to defend the people’s right to the process, while other voices supporting the legislation attacked this freedom, arguing that Missouri citizens are not capable of administering this kind of responsibility and therefore shouldn’t be afforded it.
Honoring Salus populi suprema lex esto means truly allowing the will of the people to be law. Missouri’s ballot initiative process, a constitutional authority that we have enjoyed for well over a century, embodies the spirit of our state motto by enabling citizens to carry out popular will and advance legislative priorities important to our families and communities. Our unique system of direct democracy is a well-established, respected tradition that deserves to be upheld.
H.J.R. 43, which raises the passage threshold for ballot initiatives from a simple majority to 60%, has passed out of committee and could be placed on the Senate calendar for a vote at any time. A simple majority, meaning 50% plus 1, is the level of support our state legislators must reach to win their elections, so why should we the people be held to a much higher, and more cumbersome, standard? This legislature’s attempt to intervene in the people’s authority goes against our constitution and the conservative ideals of limited government. Our state legislators should oppose H.J.R. 43 and any other legislation that directly undermines Missourians’ constitutional jurisdiction over our government.
Daniel Romine is a board member of Show Me Integrity and lives in Springfield.
Read this op-ed on the Springfield News-Leader website here.