Why Missouri’s Amendment 4 would be a ‘seismic’ change for direct democracy

Image: Engraving of Jefferson City on the Missouri River, second State Capitol building – 1853. Image credit: Unknown author – Missouri Historical Society via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. Article by Kacen Bayless. The Kansas City Star – June 30, 2026. Click here to read this article on AOL.

When Gov. Mike Kehoe ordered lawmakers to return to the Missouri Capitol last year, he claimed that “out-of-state special interests” were deceiving voters into passing “out-of-touch policies.” “It’s time we give voters a chance to protect our Constitution,” Kehoe, a Republican, said at the time, calling on lawmakers to overhaul the state’s main form of direct democracy. The first-in-the-nation solution that Kehoe unveiled — and later placed on the Aug. 4 ballot as Amendment 4 — was not centered around any one policy issue in particular. Instead, the proposal asks voters to dramatically curb their own ability to pass future ones. […]

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