Missouri Ballot Certification Lawsuit Threatens Vote
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00:00Last couple of weeks, we've been talking about Missouri and getting closer to at least the
00:07showing up on the ballot, but that seems to be in trouble as well.
00:12Oh no, Pat, is it possible that this doesn't even get to a vote?
00:15What's going on here?
00:16I think, I mean, there's a slight possibility, but as I kind of go into it, I think it's
00:20a little bit questionable, this whole lawsuit, but of course that's why it's going to be
00:25heard in court.
00:27But yeah, I mean, we're talking about this a lot to your point, just because as I talked
00:31about last week on the show, there's no, you know, opening up of any U.S. markets anytime
00:37soon.
00:38And this is kind of the next frontier of possibilities because it's going to be on the ballot in
00:43November and Missourians can say, hey, yes, we want this with a simple majority.
00:48Now what happened was, you know, earlier this month, the Secretary of State certified the
00:52signatures and the ballot question to be on the ballot.
00:56Well, last Thursday, we learned about a lawsuit that was filed by a couple of political consultants
01:01in the state, and they're arguing that the certification process for the ballot question
01:07was messed up, basically.
01:10They said that Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft used 2020 gubernatorial election results to
01:17determine how many signatures are needed in each congressional district, you know,
01:22to get on the ballot.
01:23They needed 8% of votes that were cast in the governor's election in six of eight congressional
01:31districts.
01:32Well, that's all fine and good, right?
01:34But now they're saying that he ended up using a new redrawn congressional map that was done
01:41after that gubernatorial election.
01:44And because of that, they're falling short in two extra congressional districts.
01:49So they would only have four of eight satisfied.
01:52And so they're claiming that this is a null and void and that this should not be on the
01:56ballot.
01:58You know, this is a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, winning for Missouri education,
02:03which is the committee that has pushed the signatures and driving this whole question.
02:07They filed a motion to intervene.
02:09The court said, yeah, they can certainly intervene.
02:12And then on Friday, there was a hearing set for September 5th.
02:15So obviously, this ballot question isn't up until November.
02:19So the September 5th hearing will probably tell us a whole lot.
02:23Obviously, I'm not a lawyer, I can't give legal opinions.
02:26But it is curious that this is only regarding one of the ballot questions that is on the
02:31ballot, because you would assume that if they're using it for this, they would use it for the
02:35other ones.
02:36So that's a kind of a question to kind of leave up in the air and see if anybody answers
02:40that at the higher level.
02:42Again, I don't know, it's a very curious lawsuit, and certainly something we kind of expected.
02:49We don't know who this is coming from.
02:51I mean, we know the consultants who filed it, but we don't know if there's a higher
02:54party involved pushing this.
02:55You know, I think I had mentioned at one point, I'd heard rumors, and they're still unsubstantiated,
03:01that there would be some major opposition to this ballot movement, which, you know,
03:06right now the polls show it's a fairly split issue.
03:08So could it survive a major push against it?
03:12We don't know.
03:13But yeah, a lot of attention, as we mentioned last week, is being paid to Missouri, because
03:18this is really the only frontier we're looking at that has a potential to open up, you know,
03:23even early next year.
03:27But it's a complicated mess at the moment.
03:29So we'll see what happens in the next month or two, and if it ends up on the November
03:33ballot as it is right now.