Did the Missouri AG approve the ballot summary for Mary Anne Sedey's 2019 Article VIII voting-access initiative petition (version 1, file 2020-105)?

Plain-English summary

Mary Anne Sedey filed eight parallel initiative petitions in September 2019 (numbers 2020-105 through 2020-112) to amend Article VIII of the Missouri Constitution (suffrage and elections) with a package of voting-access reforms. Petition 2020-105 is version 1 of the family.

After the Secretary of State drafted a summary statement (the ballot question voters would see), the AG reviewed its legal content and form under § 116.334 RSMo. AG Schmitt's letter here approves the summary for version 1. As approved, the version 1 summary covers automatic voter registration from state agency lists (revenue, social services, corrections, and conservation), permanent vote-by-mail sign-up with a six-week mailing window, publication of voter-method lists, and in-person voting the weekend before an election.

The AG's role is narrow: a legal-content-and-form check on the ballot summary. The letter states it is not an endorsement of the petition or its proponents' objectives.

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 adults from state agency lists (including the departments of revenue, social services, corrections and conservation);
• allow voters to sign up to permanently vote by mail, with voting by mail allowed during the six weeks before each election;
• require the secretary of state and election authorities to make available a list of registered voters who voted by a particular method (mail, in person or military); and
• allow in-person voting the weekend before an election?

Common questions

Q: What would version 1 have done?
A: The approved summary lists four changes: automatic voter registration of adults from state agency lists (revenue, social services, corrections, and conservation); a permanent vote-by-mail option with mail voting allowed in the six weeks before each election; a requirement that election officials publish lists of who voted by which method (mail, in person, or military); and in-person voting the weekend before an election. Those are the only specifics the opinion provides.

Q: What does Article VIII cover?
A: Suffrage and elections. It establishes voter qualifications, the secret ballot, election administration, recall, the initiative, and the referendum.

Q: This is "version 1" of eight. How do the others differ?
A: This opinion only reproduces and approves the summary for version 1 (file 2020-105). It does not describe the other seven versions, so any differences between them are not something this page can state from the opinion itself.

Q: Did this petition reach the ballot?
A: The opinion does not say. It is a step in the pre-circulation review process, not a record of whether signatures were gathered or the measure qualified.

Background and statutory framework

Chapter 116 RSMo lays out the initiative-petition pipeline, which runs roughly: the proponent files the petition with the Secretary of State; the AG reviews it for sufficiency as to form; the State Auditor prepares a fiscal note; the Secretary of State drafts the summary statement; and the petition is certified for circulation. This opinion is the summary-statement step. The only statute the letter cites is § 116.334 RSMo, the provision under which the AG approves the legal content and form of the Secretary of State's proposed summary.

Citations and references

Statutes: § 116.334 RSMo (the operative provision for AG review of a summary statement, the only statute the opinion cites).

Constitutional provisions referenced: Mo. Const. art. VIII (suffrage and elections, the article the petition would amend, named in the letter).

Sister Sedey Article VIII summary-statement opinions in this September 2019 cluster: 196-2019 (v2, 2020-106), 197-2019 (v3, 2020-107), 198-2019 (v4, 2020-108), 199-2019 (v5, 2020-109), 200-2019 (v6, 2020-110), 201-2019 (v7, 2020-111), 202-2019 (v8, 2020-112).

Fiscal-note reviews on the same Sedey cluster: 186-190-2019.

Source

• Landing page: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/ag-opinions/
• Original PDF: https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/195-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI

ERIC SCHMITT

September 19, 2019

OPINION LETTER NO. 195-2019

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 September 9, 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 1 (2020-105). The proposed summary statement is as follows:

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:

• establish automatic voter registration of adults from state agency lists (including the departments of revenue, social services, corrections and conservation);
• allow voters to sign up to permanently vote by mail, with voting by mail allowed during the six weeks before each election;
• require the secretary of state and election authorities to make available a list of registered voters who voted by a particular method (mail, in person or military); and
• allow in-person voting the weekend before an election?

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-2019-0225