Did the Missouri AG approve the form of Mary Anne Sedey's 2019 elections-article initiative petition (version 11, file 2020-139)?
Plain-English summary
Mary Anne Sedey filed eleven near-identical drafts (versions 1 through 11) of an initiative petition in November 2019 to amend Article VIII of the Missouri Constitution, the article that governs voter qualifications, election administration, primaries, and the initiative and referendum process. Petition 2020-139 is version 11 of that family. Under § 116.332 RSMo, the Secretary of State sends each filed petition to the Attorney General for a "sufficiency as to form" review. AG Schmitt's letter here approves the form of version 11.
Form approval is narrow. It checks whether the petition reads like a valid initiative petition (proper structure, signature lines, identification of the proponent, no obvious defects on the face). It does not bless the policy in the petition, does not vouch for the petition's legal substance, and does not bind the Secretary of State, who retains final authority to approve or reject under the same § 116.332.
The opinion does not describe what version 11 actually does to Article VIII. The substantive content is in the petition document itself, which is filed with the Secretary of State.
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.
Common questions
Q: What does "sufficiency as to form" actually mean?
A: It means the petition is structurally valid as an initiative petition. § 116.050 RSMo (and related statutes in Chapter 116) prescribe what an initiative petition must contain: a heading, the full text of the proposed measure, a signature page with statutory recitals, identification of who is circulating it, etc. The AG looks for those formal elements. The AG does not assess whether the policy proposal is constitutional, whether it conflicts with other state law, or whether it is a good idea.
Q: Why did Sedey file 11 nearly-identical versions?
A: Initiative proponents commonly file multiple drafts of the same idea. The reasons include hedging against losing one version to a procedural defect, proposing slightly different policy variants and seeing which one survives ballot-summary litigation, and locking in petition numbers early in case the Secretary of State's office or the courts reject any individual version. Once the proponent decides which version to circulate for signatures, the others typically go dormant.
Q: Is this petition the one that ended up on the ballot?
A: The opinion does not say. AG sufficiency-as-to-form approval is one early step in a long pipeline (form approval, fiscal note approval, summary statement approval, signature gathering, certification, and any pre-election ballot-title litigation). Many petitions clear the form review and then never advance because the proponent withdraws, fails to gather signatures, or settles on a different version.
Q: What does Article VIII cover?
A: Article VIII of the Missouri Constitution is titled "Suffrage and Elections." It establishes voter qualifications, the secret ballot, election administration, recall, the initiative, and the referendum. Any amendment to Article VIII reworks how Missourians vote or how elections are administered.
Q: Who actually decides whether the petition is accepted?
A: The Secretary of State, John R. Ashcroft at the time. The AG's letter is an advisory checkpoint. § 116.332 expressly leaves "final authority to approve or reject the petition" with the Secretary of State.
Background and statutory framework
Chapter 116 RSMo governs the Missouri initiative-and-referendum pipeline. The relevant procedural moves on a typical petition are:
- Proponent files the petition with the Secretary of State.
- Secretary of State forwards to the AG for a § 116.332 sufficiency-as-to-form review (this opinion).
- State Auditor prepares a fiscal note and fiscal note summary; AG reviews the summary's legal content and form under § 116.175.4 RSMo.
- Secretary of State drafts a summary statement (the ballot question text); AG reviews under § 116.334 RSMo.
- If all clear, the petition is certified for circulation; signatures must be collected by the statutory deadline.
Each AG step in that pipeline produces a separate opinion letter. That is why the November-December 2019 cluster of MO opinions reads like a procession of near-identical letters: each filed petition draft cycles through three or four AG checkpoints.
Citations and references
Statutes: § 116.332 RSMo (the operative provision); § 116.175 RSMo (fiscal note pipeline); § 116.334 RSMo (summary statement pipeline).
Sister sufficiency-as-to-form opinions in the Sedey Article VIII November 15, 2019 cluster: 237-2019 (version 3, 2020-131), 238-2019 (version 4, 2020-132), 239-2019 (version 5, 2020-133), 240-2019 (version 6, 2020-134), 241-2019 (version 7, 2020-135), 242-2019 (version 8, 2020-136), 243-2019 (version 9, 2020-137), 244-2019 (version 10, 2020-138).
Related cluster opinions on Hirner's Article XIV recreational-marijuana petitions (same November 2019 timeframe): 246-2019, 247-2019, 250-2019, 251-2019, 252-2019.
Source
- Landing page: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/ag-opinions/
- Original PDF: https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/245-2019.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
November 15, 2019
OPINION LETTER NO. 245-2019
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 November 6, 2019, for our review under § 116.332, RSMo, of the sufficiency as to form of an initiative petition to amend Article VIII, version 11, of the Missouri Constitution submitted by Mary Anne Sedey, (2020-139).
We approve the petition as to form, but § 116.332 gives the Secretary of State final authority to approve or reject the petition. Therefore, our approval of the form of the petition does not preclude you from rejecting the petition.
Because our review of the petition is simply for the purpose of determining sufficiency as to form, the fact that we do not reject the petition is not to be construed as a determination that the petition is sufficient as to substance. Likewise, because our review is mandated by statute, no action that we take with respect to such review should be construed as an endorsement of the petition or of the objectives of its proponents, or the expression of any view respecting the adequacy or inadequacy of the petition generally.
Very truly yours,
ERIC S. SCHMITT
Attorney General
Supreme Court Building
207 W. High Street
P.O. Box 899 OP-2019-0279
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3321
Fax: (573) 751-0774
www.ago.mo.gov