Organizers challenging Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map say they turned in enough signatures on Tuesday to block the map from going into effect and to force a referendum on the map next year.
People not Politicians, the main organization behind the effort, said they submitted more than 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office, nearly triple the number required to block the map from going into effect. Missouri’s Republican secretary of state now needs to review the signatures.
“The citizens of Missouri have spoken loudly and clearly: they deserve fair maps, not partisan manipulation,” Richard von Glahn, the executive director of People Not Politicians, said in statement. “We are submitting a record number of signatures to shut down any doubt that Missouri voters want a say.”
Missouri Republicans approved a new map in September that eliminates the Kansas City-based district of Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, and replaces it with a Republican one. It’s part of a nationwide push by Donald Trump to redraw Republican-friendly congressional districts ahead of next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans are expected to lose their razor-thin majority in Congress.
Texas and North Carolina have also redrawn districts to be more GOP-friendly, while California has countered with a new map that adds as many as five Democratic districts.
A provision of the Missouri constitution gives voters a chance to repeal acts of the legislature if organizers can collect enough signatures in a tight timeframe. The vast majority of the measures that have been put up for a referendum have been repealed.
Republicans have aggressively fought to counter the Missouri effort. The secretary of state, Denny Hoskins, has tried to throw out nearly 100,000 signatures, arguing that they were prematurely collected.
Verifying the signatures should take between eight and 10 weeks, but it could go into next summer, People Not Politicians said in a statement. The new map must remain paused while the review takes place, the group said.
Catherine Hanaway, the Missouri attorney general, has also taken legal efforts to try to stop the referendum from taking place.
