Raising the bar for constitutional amendments could stop action on Missouri abortion ban

Luckily, the majority of Missouri is "Red" and I'm grateful my family and I live in a rural area where you can trust your neighbor. We have Good Neighbors, and I'm not talking about State Farm.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Since the end of the 2022 election cycle, there’s been increased talk from proponents of abortion rights about placing a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot that would repeal a 2019 law prohibiting abortions in the state with the exception of medical emergencies. Supporters of strengthening the ban also may try to get a constitutional amendment passed.

State Rep. Emily Weber said on a recent edition of the Politically Speaking podcast that proponents of repealing the abortion ban are in discussions about what language should be in the proposal.

“A lot of conversations are happening now about what this looks like,” said Weber, D-Kansas City.

If either plan has enough signatures, it could be up for a vote in November 2024 — which will be a high-turnout election with a presidential race, Missouri’s governorship and a U.S. Senate seat all on the ballot.

Missouri Republicans, such as incoming state Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, also want to make changes to the ballot initiative petition process. They could include requiring constitutional amendments to receive 60% of the vote in an election to pass, as opposed to the current simple majority.

Ashcroft said if voters approve a measure in August 2024 raising the requirement to 60%, any constitutional change on the November ballot — such as a measure repealing the abortion ban or making it stronger — would need to reach that threshold.

“Under the Missouri Constitution, a constitutional change that receives the requisite affirmative votes goes into effect 30 days after the election,” Ashcroft said.

But Chuck Hatfield, a Jefferson City-based attorney with extensive experience in legal work on ballot initiatives, said there’s some ambiguity around the impact of a threshold change on November 2024 constitutional proposals.

“Bottom line, if the General Assembly tries that and the people vote for it, we are likely in for a court fight,” Hatfield said."...

My take on States that allow their Constitution to be "amended" by a majority vote. It's a great idea when actually needed but unfortunately, now it has become sort of a joke when all you need is x-amount of signatures to get an (insert your favorite single-issue cause here) amendment to the voters. It's reached the point where every 4th year major election in each State has a plethora of amendments to consider, and rarely do any of those amendments reach the critical plateau necessary to amend a constitution.