Initiative Petition Fraud: Missouri Needs Action
Initiative petition fraud is a reality in Missouri, and it should be punished by passing Amendment 4 in 2026.
Imagine that you find out there’s a new tax that will be appearing on your ballot.
You’re already mad.
But then, you find out that someone signed your name to the petition that put it on the ballot.
That’s what happened to hundreds of voters in Platte County just this year.
Petition collectors, often paid by the signature, are incentivized to pad their stats.
That leads to fraud.
Missouri ranks fifth in the nation for the average number of elections run by local officials.
Because they’re stretched thin, election officials are often unable to verify each individual signature. Instead, they audit random samples.
This incentivizes the groups collecting the signatures to turn in everything they have, instead of only valid signatures.
It’s a bad system, and one that leads to fraud.
That’s the most glaring type of initiative petition fraud in Missouri.
More common are paid petition collectors who misrepresent the contents of the petition, leading voters to sign something they wouldn’t have if they had known what was in it.
It’s time for a change.
Right now, initiative petition fraud may be prosecuted under several statutes, but that depends on local prosecutors doing their jobs.
It is nearly impossible to get an initiative petition fraud case investigated in Jackson or St. Louis Counties.
The entire petition collection process is surrounded by a cloud of lawlessness.
Measures are put on the ballot that should never have made it there.
Judges rewrite the descriptions.
Foreign nationals saturate the airwaves supporting Liberal narratives.
Our state loses.
That’s where the Protect MO Voters Amendment comes in.
In addition to a constitutional ban on foreign funding of ballot measures, the Protect MO Voters Amendment establishes the crime of initiative petition fraud and gives sole jurisdiction to the Attorney General to investigate such cases.
No more waiting on Woke prosecutors to prosecute their allies.
Accountability returns to the petition collection process.
Vote YES on the Protect MO Voters Amendment.
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA