A dispute over Missouri's congressional map could snowball into a legal and logistical elections crisis

[RandySF]

Missouri was one of the first states to heed President Donald Trump’s call for Republican-controlled states to redraw their congressional lines. But unlike the others that have done so, Missouri allows residents who don’t like a law passed by the legislature to gather signatures to put that law to a statewide vote. Opponents of the new Republican gerrymander did just that, and in December they submitted more than 305,000 signatures to the secretary of state — almost three times as many as are required to make the ballot.

Crucially, under the Missouri Constitution, a law that is referred to a public vote isn’t supposed to take effect unless and until voters approve it — meaning the mere existence of a referendum on the map should have been enough to prevent it from being used in the 2026 election. But, breaking from precedent, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins took the position that merely submitting the signatures wasn’t enough to put the map on hold. Instead, he said, the map would remain good law until his office officially verified all the signatures and certified the referendum for the ballot. That decision was legally challenged, but the Missouri Supreme Court sided with Hoskins.

As things stand today, the referendum still is not officially certified. Hoskins has until Aug. 4 to make a final determination. The problem is, Aug. 4 is also the date of the Missouri primary — and local election officials have to plan to hold that election under one map or the other. They have to assign voters to the appropriate districts in their computer systems as soon as possible and send out the first ballots to overseas and military voters by mid-June.

With the Republican gerrymander still technically on the books, Hoskins is telling county clerks to plan for the primary to take place under the new map — even though it’s very likely that the referendum got enough signatures to qualify.




https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/06/01/missouri-congressional-map-2026-election-secretary-of-state-denny-hoskins/

[UpInArms]

1. I hate these freaking cheaters

They have refused to implement the amendments that we have passed and now they refuse to certify our petition in a timely manner.

I can only hope to increase the number of democratic representatives in November.

[hatrack]

2. This has not received enough coverage - thanks for posting

(Mrs. Hatrack here, posting on Hatrack's account.)

Thanks for posting this very important article about the redistricting situation in Missouri. This has not received nearly enough coverage. Most reporting on the national redistricting issue includes Missouri on the list of states that have gained a red seat through redistricting, when in fact this issue is not yet over in Missouri. And it is complicated, as the article shows.

Missouri's secretary of state is dragging out the certification of the citizens referendum, even though publicly available data already shows the number of signatures gathered that have been verified as valid has far surpassed the required number of valid signatures per district. And this does not include nearly 100,000 not-yet-verified signatures that were gathered early in the signature-gathering process, which he has set aside, saying they were gathered too early, which is under litigation.

If he does his job and certifies the referendum, then the 2025 gerrymandered map is put on hold and Missouri reverts to the 2022 map until Missouri voters are able to vote on the referendum. The article does a good job of showing what a mess Missouri could have if there is a lack of clarity about which map is legal when voters vote in the primary and the general, due to his delays in certifying. And Missouri's un-elected acting GOP AG has said that delay is their friend.

People Not Politicians MO, the group behind the citizens referendum, does a good job covering this issue on their social media and website.