Final Arguments Heard in Initiative Petition Challenge

A ruling is expected as early as Monday in the legal challenge to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s decision to reject the signatures collected for a pair of ballot initiatives – one dealing with eminent domain and another to limit the growth of state government spending. Final arguments have been heard in Cole County Circuit Court, with lawyers for Missourians in Charge – the group that collected hundreds of thousands of signatures – claiming that while mistakes might have been made, those mistakes should not result in the signatures being tossed. Lawyers for the state and other interested parties argued the fiscal note was wrong and the numbers were incorrectly numbered, so the signatures had to be rejected. Missourians in Charge’s Patrick Tuohey says the right of the people to petition their government must trump all statutory efforts to limit or narrow that right. Time is of the essence. There is an August 8th deadline for initiative signatures to be approved and for the initiatives to be certified for inclusion on the November ballot.