Missouri’s top elections official squashed a challenge to Republicans’ new congressional map that could net them one more U.S. House seat, waiting until the last possible day to block a petition that would have triggered a statewide vote on the gerrymander.
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, on Tuesday rejected petitioners’ attempt to put the map on the ballot in November ahead of the deadline to decide whether the petition could advance, saying the challenge itself was “unconstitutional.”
“At issue is not the number of signatures turned into the challenge, the new congressional map, but the fact that the referendum itself is null and void by virtue of the fact that it is unconstitutional,” Hoskins said at a Tuesday press conference. “Therefore, House Bill 1, the Missouri First map, continues to be the law of the land.”
Hoskins also said that Gov. Mike Kehoe and Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway agreed with his choice. At the press conference, Hoskins said he was “confident in the stance” he’s taken, and that the government is “prepared to go to court.”
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That chance will come soon: People Not Politicians Missouri, the group that led the original petition, confirmed in a statement Tuesday evening that it plans to announce details regarding future litigation tomorrow.
The Missouri General Assembly pushed through a new map targeting Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s heavily Democratic district, becoming one of the first states that moved to redistrict after President Donald Trump pushed state lawmakers to redraw their congressional maps to more heavily favor Republicans.
Signed into law by Kehoe last September, the map carves Missouri’s largest city, Kansas City, into three congressional districts.
Shortly after the assembly pushed the new lines through last fall, People Not Politicians Missouri gathered over 300,000 signatures to force a referendum. In Missouri, a petition with enough signatures triggers a veto referendum, or a statewide vote on the law in question.
The group filed the signatures in December. Hoskins had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to decide on the legality of the petition — the same day as Missouri’s primary elections.
Hoskins was widely expected to not certify the signatures, previously saying that any signatures gathered before the campaign was approved by his office constituted “a misdemeanor election offense,” a claim his office later clarified and corrected.
“Secretary of State Hoskins is making a last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice in Missouri,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, wrote in a statement. “We’ve fought back against politicians for the last year, and we won’t stop now. There are more than enough signatures, verified by election authorities, to qualify the referendum.”
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