Missouri voters have rejected Amendment 4, which would have placed additional limits on the process for amending the state constitution through initiative petition and a statewide election. The Associated Press called the race with about 16% of votes counted, with 207,670 votes against the amendment and 45,447 in favor.

Amendment 4 Details

Supporters of Amendment 4 argued that the additional limits were necessary to prevent outside interests from influencing Missouri’s politics and to ensure that citizen-led changes to the constitution have overwhelming statewide support. Opponents, however, claimed that the state’s initiative petition process is already difficult to achieve and that Amendment 4 would make it virtually impossible.

Under the current process, the secretary of state is involved in several steps. Amendment 4 would have added new limits to the election part of the process, requiring a majority vote in each of the state’s eight congressional districts for successful citizen-petitioned constitutional amendments. This new limit would have applied only to citizen-petitioned amendments, not those proposed by the Legislature.

Original reporting: Springfield Daily Citizen — read the source article.