Missouri Voters Deserve the Full Text
Missouri voters see a sales pitch and get stuck with the fine print.
That’s the problem Amendment 4 is built to fix by requiring that the full text of every amendment be made available to voters before they vote.
Marijuana Legalization: Amendment 3 (2022)
In 2022, Missouri voters saw a short ballot title for Amendment 3. The official summary put marijuana legalization into six bullet points.
The text voters added to the Constitution was much longer.
By page count, marijuana rules now take up about 21.5% of the current Missouri Constitution.
This is a broken process, regardless of where you stand on marijuana legalization.
The pitch was six bullet points. The fine print filled 42 pages.
Clean Missouri: Amendment 1 (2018)
Clean Missouri tells the same story.
In 2018, voters approved Amendment 1, better known as Clean Missouri. The ballot title included ethics reforms, lobbyist limits, campaign contribution changes, open-records language, and changes to the way Missouri drew state legislative districts.
What were those changes that went unexplained in the ballot summary?
Clean Missouri’s redistricting provision transferred authority from the legislature to the State Auditor’s Office, at the time, the only Statewide elected Democratic Party official.
What was sold as an ethics reform was actually a partisan power grab.
When Missourians discovered this, they rolled it back.
That’s the pattern.
A big package gets sold in a short summary. The fine print goes into the Constitution. Then, Missourians have to clean up the mess later.
Transparency for Missouri Voters: Amendment 4 (2026)
Amendment 4 brings common sense back to the initiative petition process. It requires statewide support for changes to our state constitution and guarantees that the full text of amendments will be made available to Missouri voters.
That’s even more important now.
The full text of Amendment 4 includes provisions on foreign funding, petition signature fraud, and public hearings before initiative petitions are placed on the ballot.
A Cole County judge removed language about foreign funding, petition signature fraud, and public hearings from Amendment 4’s ballot summary.
The court changed the summary voters will see. It did not remove those provisions from the amendment itself.
That is the whole problem in one example.
Ballot summaries are short. Campaigns fight over them. Lawyers fight over them. In Missouri, Courts inevitably rewrite them.
But the full text is what becomes part of the Constitution.
Voters should see the full text before they vote.
Vote Yes on Amendment 4.
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA