Abortion, minimum wage campaigns remain on track for fall ballot, early reports indicate

Citizen-led ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights in the Missouri constitution and mandate paid sick leave and an increased minimum wage remain on track to make November’s ballot, with records from Missouri election authorities showing each campaign has turned in more than enough valid signatures as the verification process continues. 

Whether the two proposals — or two others pertaining to gambling — succeed at getting on the statewide ballot won’t be known for certain until county election officials finish verifying the signature and the secretary of state certifies their work in the coming weeks.

Each of Missouri’s 114 counties, plus the city of St. Louis, has until the end of July to finish deeming each of the hundreds of thousands of signatures either valid or invalid. Then, the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has two weeks to certify the ballot measures as sufficient or insufficient. This includes determining whether there were any duplicate pages turned in, or whether any pages were submitted without the required ballot language attached or without an affidavit signed by the circulator. 

Missouri is among several states vying to put abortion on the ballot following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, at which point nearly every abortion became illegal in Missouri. If approved for the ballot, Missourians will decide in November whether to allow abortions up until the point of fetal viability. 

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the coalition leading the reproductive rights campaigns, turned in 380,000 signatures by their May deadline, including from every county. To qualify for the ballot, campaigns must get signatures from 8% of registered voters in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts, which equates to about 171,000 signatures.

As of Wednesday, the campaign, which is led by Abortion Action Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri and the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates, had at least a few thousand more verified signatures in each of the six of the eight congressional districts than required. 

The campaign’s strongest showing so far was in District 1, which contains the city of St. Louis and part of St. Louis County. There it needs more than 25,600 signatures, and according to data from election officials there were more than 53,000 signatures deemed valid in the district — despite more than 25,000 signatures being thrown out as invalid.

“We are confident as we await official certification from the Secretary of State,” Tori Schafer, deputy director for policy and campaigns with Missouri ACLU, said in a statement Wednesday. 

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Another initiative petition campaign would raise the state’s minimum wage to $13.75 beginning in January 2025 and $15 in 2026, followed by annual cost-of-living increases. It also seeks to set the minimum paid sick leave accumulate at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked; paid sick leave would extend to caring for family members.

The coalition behind the measure, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, also turned in signatures from every county as a show of support. So far, they have at least 5,000 additional signatures deemed valid than required in six of the eight congressional districts.

“We’re not surprised to see these preliminary numbers from the Secretary of State because of the momentum on the ground we’ve felt for months,” Joni Wickham, communications director, Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages, said in a statement. “ … We’re confident this initiative is headed for success on the November ballot.”

Signatures turned in by two other measures hoping to make the November ballot — legalized sports wagering and authorization to build a new casino Near Lake of the Ozarks — are still early in the process of being totalled by county election officials. 

In May, county officials were directed by the secretary of state’s office to verify signatures across the four campaigns in a particular order, with the abortion measure first, followed by minimum wage, sports wagering and finally, the casino, according to an email obtained by The Independent through a request under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.

This means counties are not nearly as far along verifying and totaling signatures for the two latter petitions. 

The sports wagering measure, which is run under a campaign called Winning for Missouri Education, would allow online platforms, major professional sports teams and the state’s licensed casinos to seek a sports wagering license. Net winnings would be taxed at 10%, and that revenue, estimated at up to $28.9 million annually, would support education programs.

“In the coming weeks we look forward to our official certification, which will allow Missourians to invest in our public schools by legalizing sports betting,” Jack Cardetti, spokesperson for Winning for Missouri Education, said in a statement.

The final measure, an effort to bring a new casino to the Lake of the Ozarks region, is headed by The Osage River Gaming & Convention committee. If approved for the ballot, and then by voters, it would authorize the development of a hotel, convention center, restaurants and other attractions. 

The proposal would also override a 2008 state law that currently limits Missouri to 13 licensed casinos.

“We turned in significantly more (signatures) than what was required,” John Hancock, a spokesperson for the committee, said Wednesday. “We are confident that we will have enough signatures once verified.”

Three of the four campaigns appear to have focused the bulk of their efforts on collecting signatures in all but the 6th and 8th districts, which make up northern and southeastern Missouri, respectively. 

Records obtained in May by the Independent indicating how many pages of signatures were turned in per county for each campaign, accompanied by the latest verified signature count, point to a renewed interest in Boone County following lawmakers’ decision to split it between the 3rd and 4th districts.

The minimum wage effort remains the outlier, with signature collectors appearing to favor the 6th district but skipping the 4th, which includes parts of Jackson and Boone counties.

The Independent’s Rudi Keller contributed.