Cole County Circuit Court Judge Brian Stumpe must decide how to rewrite ballot language for a possible referendum on redistricting. He is shown during a November hearing in the Cole County Courthouse (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
Attorneys for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins spent most of Monday afternoon trying to salvage some of the language he used to describe the impact of a referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map.
After conceding that some of the ballot summary Hoskins prepared for the referendum is flawed and should be revised, Kathleen Hunker from the attorney general’s office said during a court hearing that other parts are neutral and should be retained.
But attorneys for People Not Politicians, the PAC that gathered more than 300,000 signatures to force a statewide vote, said the portions Hoskins wants to keep don’t describe anything actually in the bill that changed the state’s congressional districts.
At the end of the hearing, Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe gave the attorneys until Friday to submit revised ballot summaries. He did not indicate when he would rule.
The case is one of nearly a dozen resulting from the September special session where Republican lawmakers, acting at the urging of President Donald Trump, revised districts to give the GOP seven of the state’s eight seats in Congress.
The intended result from the new map is to flip the 5th District to the GOP. The district, based in Kansas City, has been represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005.
The next case to be heard will be a trial Tuesday over whether the new map took effect on Dec. 11 for use with this year’s elections or whether the delivery of petition signatures suspended it until a statewide vote can be held. Candidate filing for the congressional seats opens on Feb. 24.
Denny Hoskins admits writing flawed ballot summary for Missouri gerrymandering referendum
When citizens initiate a referendum to force a statewide vote on a new law, it is up to the secretary of state to write the ballot summary voters will see at the polls. If backers or opponents of the referendum don’t like the language and believe it would prejudice voters, they can sue to have it revised by a judge.
For the referendum, Hoskins wrote:
“Do the people of the state of Missouri approve the act of the General Assembly entitled ‘House Bill No. 1 (2025 Second Extraordinary Session),’ which repeals Missouri’s existing gerrymandered congressional plan that protects incumbent politicians, and replaces it with new congressional boundaries that keep more cities and counties intact, are more compact, and better reflects statewide voting patterns?”
In filings last month, Hoskins admitted that the phrase “existing gerrymandered congressional plan that protects incumbent politicians” is argumentative and likely to cause prejudice against the referendum. But in court on Monday, Hunker said language stating that the new plan will “keep more cities and counties intact, are more compact, and better reflects statewide voting patterns” should remain.
That language is “merely descriptive” of the map but it identifies central features, she said.
“Overall, it provides voters with enough information that they are able to make a choice on whether to investigate further,” Hunker said.
The plan approved last year has fewer counties split between two or more districts — five instead of nine — but whether that is better or worse for Missouri voters is uncertain, attorneys for People Not Politicians told Stumpe.
The bill passed by lawmakers is just a listing of counties, voting precincts and census blocks that are assigned to each district. Under questioning from Alix Cossette and Chuck Hatfield, political consultant Sean Nicholson said it is impossible to tell from the bill which cities are split. He mocked the idea that it “better reflects statewide voting patterns.”
Democrats typically win about 40% of the statewide vote but would get only 12.5% of the congressional seats in the gerrymandered map, Nicholson said. Analysis of the map passed last year shows a more pronounced partisan bias in the districts compared to the plan it would replace, he said.
The “better reflects” language suggests to voters that threw would be more, not less, partisan balance, he said,
“That suggestion,” Nicholson said, “would be laughable.”