PROTECTING CONGRESSIONAL MAPS IN MISSOURI
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/missouri-map-gerrymandering
Organizers challenging Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional
map say they turned in enough signatures on Tuesday to block
the map from going into effect and to force a referendum on the
map next year.
People not Politicians, the main organization behind the effort,
said they submitted more than 300,000 signatures to the
secretary of state’s office, nearly triple the number required to
block the map from going into effect. Missouri’s Republican
secretary of state now needs to review the signatures.
“The citizens of Missouri have spoken loudly and clearly: they
deserve fair maps, not partisan manipulation,” Richard von Glahn,
the executive director of People Not Politicians, said in statement.
“We are submitting a record number of signatures to shut down
any doubt that Missouri voters want a say.”
Missouri Republicans approved a new map in September that
eliminates the Kansas City-based district of Emanuel Cleaver, a
Democrat, and replaces it with a Republican one. It’s part of a
nationwide push by Donald Trump to redraw Republican-friendly
congressional districts ahead of next year’s midterm elections,
when Republicans are expected to lose their razor-thin majority in
Congress.
Texas and North Carolina have also redrawn districts to be more
GOP-friendly, while California has countered with a new map that
adds as many as five Democratic districts.
A provision of the Missouri constitution gives voters a chance to
repeal acts of the legislature if organizers can collect enough
signatures in a tight timeframe. The vast majority of the measures
that have been put up for a referendum have been repealed.
Republicans have aggressively fought to counter the Missouri
effort. The secretary of state, Denny Hoskins, has tried to throw
out nearly 100,000 signatures, arguing that they were prematurely
collected.
Verifying the signatures should take between eight and 10 weeks,
but it could go into next summer, People Not Politicians said in a
statement. The new map must remain paused while the review
takes place, the group said.
Catherine Hanaway, the Missouri attorney general, has also taken
legal efforts to try to stop the referendum from taking place.