Citizens in Charge

Today Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge, will be in Missouri helping local citizens fight for their voting rights.

Local activists have invited Paul to Missouri to discuss the importance of the ballot initiative process. In an email to local voters, the Missourians write:

Besides stronger property rights provisions, the 1875 Constitution guaranteed the people a new “check” on the power of government.  That provision is our current Article III, Section 49:

Article II, Section 49: “The people reserve power to propose and enact or reject laws and amendments to the constitution by the initiative, independent of the general assembly, and also reserve power to approve or reject by referendum any act of the general assembly, except as hereinafter provided.” (Emph. added)

This provision was not a move toward dreaded “direct democracy”, in which every decision is made by a majority of voters (some call that
“mobocracy”.)  Instead, the reservation of the right to petition was an extension of the most fundamental truth of any constitutional republic - which is eloquently declared in the first section of the Missouri Bill of Rights:

Article I, Section 1: “That all political power is vested in and derived from the people; that all government of right originates from the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.”

Currently Missouri’s ballot initiative process is under attack by members of the legislature. New legislation is being pushed through the state government which would make the process harder for average citizens.

State Representative Mike Parson is reintroducing HB 228, which changes the laws regarding the circulation of petitions.State Senator Joan Bray has a similar bill, SB 115.

Learn more and find out what you can do by contact our grassroots corrdinator
Brandon Holmes