A recreational marijuana ballot measure can appear on Missouri’s general election ballot in November after all.
Cole County Courthouse in downtown Jefferson City
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker dismissed today a lawsuit against the state’s top election leader.
Jefferson City resident Joy Sweeney sued after Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft certified the marijuana initiative petition. Her lawyers alleged that Ashcroft broke the law by certifying thousands of signatures that were originally unvalidated at the county level. They also argued that the petition, which includes expungement provisions, violates Missouri’s requirement that only allows ballot measures to contain a single subject.
Ashcroft said new technology allowed his office to digitally verify what election workers could not.
Judge Walker said Ashcroft acted within the Secretary of State’s authority when Ashcroft’s office reviewed petitions and validated signatures of registered voters that county officials had invalidated.
The proposed constitutional amendment, led by a group called Legal Missouri 2022, would allow adult use of marijuana and clear nonviolent convictions involving three pounds or less of marijuana.
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