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Missouri Republicans are upset with the will of their voters, so they plan to change the rules [1]
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Date: 2023-01-17
You see, in a deep dive, the Kansas City Star found that Missouri Republicans voiced serious concerns about how easy it is to influence Missouri voters to pass ballot initiatives and undo Republicans’ work. This is significantly different from the influence that, say, groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council, Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), anti-abortion organizations, the NRA, and numerous other conservative lobbying organizations have at the state level.
One way to kill new proposals is to change the votes needed to succeed. In Missouri, the measure to use is to change the fact you need a majority of all registered voters whether they vote or not. This proposed change would make it nearly impossible to pass any voter-supported initiative, as numerous voters never vote in any election despite being registered. This can occur for a variety of reasons: reports of moves, people who register with a driver’s license but never actually vote, deaths, sickness, and lack of interest make up a fair size of our overall electorate. Voters can also be disinterested in other races, find that their polling places are confusing or that lines are too long, or live in the belief they don’t know enough and shouldn’t vote.
By moving the goalposts in this way, Republicans believe that they have a chance to end voter participation in their government. Nothing says working on your behalf like statehouse representatives who are afraid you are going to be influenced by your own research more than they might be influenced by a lobbyist. But it’s never good when preventing voter participation seems like the best plan you have.
RELATED STORY: Red-state ballot measures once again show mismatches between voters and politicians
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/17/2147669/-Missouri-Republicans-are-upset-with-the-will-of-their-voters-so-they-plan-to-change-the-rules
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