Citizen-led ballot initiatives: Missouri voters resoundingly reject GOP effort to muzzle them

 It went down in all 114 counties.

Graphic:  New York Times

Headline:  Bolts, 8/5/2026

Pascal Sabino reports on the embarrassing mess the Missouri GOP made for themselves:

Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected an effort by Republican lawmakers to drastically raise the threshold for passing citizen ballot measures—which in recent years have allowed Missourians to legalize marijuana, raise the minimum wage, guarantee paid sick leave, expand Medicaid, and revoke the state’s strict abortion ban, all over the objections of state GOP officials. 

Angered by these reforms, Republicans who dominate Missouri’s legislature put Amendment 4 on Tuesday’s ballot to try and mandate that future citizen-led initiatives win majorities in each of the state’s eight congressional districts, as opposed to the statewide majority vote that is currently required. Notably, the same rules would not have applied to measures that the legislature sends to the ballot, and critics say that carveout helped rally voters against the restriction. Under those proposed rules, all five popular initiatives that Missouri voters have approved since 2020 would have failed, an analysis by Bolts found last year.

The measure received the most support -- 41% "yes" votes -- in Shelby County.

Facts about Shelby County:

1. Current population is 5,870, which is down % from a peak of 16,167 in 1900.  The county is 92.5% white.
2. Shelby County has about the same number of residents now than it did in the mid-1850s.
3. Trump won the county by 58 pints in 2016, 62 points in 2020, and 66 points in 2024,
4. The percentage of adults 25 and older with a bachelor's degree or higher is half that of the U.S.