Did the Missouri AG approve the ballot summary for Mary Anne Sedey's 2019 Article VIII voting-access initiative petition with 16-year-old pre-registration (version 2, file 2020-098)?
Plain-English summary
Mary Anne Sedey filed multiple slates of Article VIII voting-access petitions through summer 2019. Petition 2020-098 is version 2 of an early-August slate that included 16-year-old pre-registration and provisional ballot transfer at the wrong polling place. Its sister version 2020-097 was reviewed in opinion 162-2019. The text of the two ballot summaries is identical; the petitions differ in their underlying constitutional drafting. The September wave (2020-105 through 2020-112) refined the package further into eight policy permutations.
After the Secretary of State drafted the ballot summary, the AG reviewed it under § 116.334 RSMo. AG Schmitt's letter here approves the legal content and form of that summary. The AG's role is narrow: a legal-form check on the ballot summary. It is not a policy endorsement.
Currency note
This opinion was issued in 2019. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.
The exact ballot summary the AG approved
Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
- establish automatic voter registration of individuals at least 16 years old from state agency lists (including the departments of revenue, social services and conservation);
- allow voters on election day to appear at the wrong polling place, vote on a wrong ballot, and have election judges later transfer the votes to the right ballot;
- allow voters to sign up to permanently vote by mail, with voting by mail allowed during the six weeks before each election; and
- make voters' method of voting a public record (mail, in person or military)?
Common questions
Q: How does this version differ from petition 2020-097?
A: The ballot summaries are identical. The two versions differ in their underlying constitutional text (drafting variants of how the same policy is implemented in Article VIII). Filing both lets the proponent choose whichever survives summary-statement litigation challenges.
Q: Why pre-register 16-year-olds rather than 18-year-olds?
A: Pre-registration captures young people through high-school touchpoints with state agencies (driver licensing, social services), then enters them on the rolls automatically when they turn 18. About a dozen states allow some form of teen pre-registration.
Q: What is "ballot transfer" at the wrong polling place?
A: Today, a voter who shows up at the wrong precinct often votes a provisional ballot that may not count for races the voter is not entitled to vote in at that precinct. The petition would have election judges route the cast votes to the correct ballot after the fact, so all of the voter's choices count.
Q: How does this connect to the September Sedey wave?
A: The September wave (2020-105 through 2020-112) replaced "wrong polling place" with weekend in-person voting and added Department of Corrections to the registration sources (in some versions). The August wave (2020-097, 2020-098) was the predecessor.
Q: Did the petition reach the ballot?
A: The opinion does not say. None of Sedey's 2019 petition versions appears to have advanced to the 2020 ballot.
Background and statutory framework
Chapter 116 RSMo lays out the initiative-petition pipeline:
- Proponent files the petition with the Secretary of State.
- AG reviews sufficiency as to form under § 116.332 RSMo.
- State Auditor prepares a fiscal note; AG reviews under § 116.175.4 RSMo.
- Secretary of State drafts a summary statement; AG reviews under § 116.334 RSMo (this opinion).
- Petition certified for circulation.
Citations and references
Statutes: § 116.334 RSMo (the operative provision); § 116.190 RSMo (judicial challenges); § 116.175 RSMo (fiscal-note pipeline); § 116.332 RSMo (sufficiency-as-to-form).
Sister Sedey early-August 2019 wave: 162-2019 (petition 2020-097, version 1 of this slate).
Sister Sedey later September 2019 wave (Article VIII voting-access, eight versions): form-review opinions 169-176 (versions 1-8); fiscal-note opinions 183-190; summary-statement opinions 195-202.
Source
- Landing page: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/ag-opinions/
- Original PDF: https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/163-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Original opinion text
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI
ERIC SCHMITT
August 2, 2019
OPINION LETTER NO. 163-2019
The Honorable John R. Ashcroft
Missouri Secretary of State
James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center
600 West Main Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101
Dear Secretary Ashcroft:
This opinion letter responds to your request dated July 25, 2019, for our
review under § 116.334, RSMo, of a proposed summary statement prepared for
the petition submitted by Mary Anne Sedey regarding a proposed
constitutional amendment to amend Article VIII of the Missouri Constitution,
version 2 (2020-098). The proposed summary statement is as follows:
Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
• establish automatic voter registration of individuals
at least 16 years old from state agency lists (including
the departments of revenue, social services and
conservation);
• allow voters on election day to appear at the wrong
polling place, vote on a wrong ballot, and have election
judges later transfer the votes to the right ballot;
• allow voters to sign up to permanently vote by mail,
with voting by mail allowed during the six weeks
before each election; and
• make voters' method of voting a public record (mail,
in person or military)?
Pursuant to § 116.334, RSMo, we approve the legal content and form of
the proposed statement. Because our review of the statement is mandated by
statute, no action that we take with respect to such review should be construed
as an endorsement of the petition, nor as the expression of any view regarding
the objectives of its proponents.
Very truly yours,
ERIC S. SCHMITT
Attorney General
Supreme Court Building
207 W. High Street
P.O. Box 899
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3321
Fax: (573) 751-0774
www.ago.mo.gov
OP-2019-0188