Unfortunately, Amendment 7 passed
Missouri Senate: SJR 78 introduced by Ben Brown (R) to ban ranked choice voting; the same as the House version.
Status: The bill passed on Friday (5/17) down party lines 97 to 43, with state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson, and state. Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, a Democrat from St. Louis, voting present.
(https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/mo/2024/bills/MOB00021354/)
(https://www.senate.mo.gov/24info/pdf-bill/tat/SJR78.pdf)
Status: April 30th a hearing was held in the House elections committee. Rachel MacNair and Larry Bradley were both there. Rachel's presentation went well, probably, but without any feedback in the form of questions afterwards. Larry's, on the other hand, sparked quite a bit of discussion. One thing made quite clear: we can't assume that legislators that are voting about banning something are actually familiar with how it's done. Even though they've been considering it for weeks, Larry had to go over some of the non-controversial basics of how the ballots are counted.
Missouri House: HJR 104 introduced by Ben Baker (R) to ban ranked choice voting. This would be a proposed constitutional amendment we'd vote on state-wide in November.
Status: A hearing was announced for the next day, so it happened on February 20. We submitted written testimony since that was too short notice to travel to Jefferson City. (That's deliberate, a common practice in the House to minimize participation.) The bill's sponsor was the only one saying anything substantive in favor. Two members of the election committee did an excellent job of speaking against it, and one person from St. Louis testified well against it. If the vote were based on the hearing, the bill would probably be dead. But of course the hearing is only part of what determines the vote.
Missouri House: HB 2244 introduced by Eric Wood (D) to provide for ranked choice voting.
Status: This hasn't been assigned to committee yet and probably won't be. We can hope for future sessions. But getting RCV in the state will probably be after we can get it in several cities.
HB 739 Creates provisions for ranked-choice voting sponsored by Representatives Woods, Eric and Adrian Plank
HJR 66 Modifies constitutional provisions about election and voting sponsored by Representative Baker, Ben
HB 2254 Creates provisions for instant runoff voting sponsored by Representatives Dan Stacy and Paula Brown
HB 1137 Creates provisions for instant runoff voting sponsored by Representatives Dan Stacy and Paula Brown
HB 1344 Creates provisions for instant runoff voting sponsored by Representative Rory Rowland
- Voter Choice Act, sponsored by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Angus King (I-Maine), along with U.S. Representative Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) . The Voter Choice Act provides $40 million in federal grants to cover up to 50 percent of the cost for local and state governments that voluntarily choose to transition to RCV. The text of the legislation is available HERE. A one-page summary of the legislation is available HERE.
- HB 1436, sponsored by Representative Dan Stacy. Creates provisions for instant runoff voting.
- HB 27, sponsored by Representative Dan Stacy. Requires all state and federal offices to use an instant runoff voting method
- HB 28, sponsored by Representative Dan Stacy. Requires all local elections to use an instant runoff voting method
- Circulated by Winston Apple. The measure would have created a ranked-choice system of electing officials to the following offices: U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and state auditor.
- HB 381, sponsored by Jake Zimmerman, cosponsored by seven others. Allows municipalities and other political subdivisions to conduct elections using instant runoff voting procedures.
- HB 1897, sponsored by Jake Zimmerman, cosponsored by Beth Low of District 39 and eight others. Allows municipalities and other political subdivisions to conduct elections using instant runoff voting procedures.
- HB 463, sponsored by Jake Zimmerman, cosponsored by Beth Low of District 39. Allows municipalities and other political subdivisions to conduct elections using instant runoff voting procedures.
- SB 303, sponsored by Jeff Smith of District 4 (also St Louis area). Allows instant runoff voting for municipalities and political subdivisions.
- HB 2089, a bill in the MO house that will require all primary and general elections held after January 1, 2009, for statewide offices and state representative and state senator to be conducted using ranked-choice voting procedures!
-The MO Senate just had a hearing on a new bill, SB 1231, requiring RCV for all primary, general, and special elections where there are three or more candidates running for the office of President and Vice President; United States Senate or House of Representatives; Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Auditor, or State Senator or Representative.