Legislation

Lawsuit Aims To Invalidate Missouri Sports Betting Initiative

Friday 23 de August 2024 / 12:00

⏱ 1 min read

(Missouri).- A lawsuit filed in Missouri could stop the sports betting initiative from appearing on the November ballot.

Lawsuit Aims To Invalidate Missouri Sports Betting Initiative

The lawsuit was filed in Cole County Circuit Court ahead of Thursday’s 10-day deadline to challenge the certification following the Secretary of State’s Aug. 13 announcement. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is listed as the defendant.

According to their LinkedIn profiles, plaintiff Jacqueline Wood owns JWood Political Strategies, a campaign and governmental consulting and lobbying firm. Plaintiff Blake Lawrence has a consulting company and previously served as chief counsel for the Missouri Senate.

Judge Cottom Walker was assigned to the case. If the circuit court finds truth in any of the claims and reverses Ashcroft’s certification, the Missouri sports betting initiative will not be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Missouri lawsuit centers around district requirements

Missouri has a unique way of qualifying initiatives based on signature verification. It’s not about the total number of signatures verified. This explanation of the initiative process from the Secretary of State breaks down how constitutional amendments require signatures from 8% of voters from the last gubernatorial election in six of eight congressional districts.

Ashcroft certified that the initiative did have sufficient valid signatures in six of eight districts (proponents essentially punted two districts). District 1 results were very close, as 55,864 signatures were submitted but just 25,714 were found valid. That is just 82 more votes than the 25,632 required in the district.

Categoría:Legislation

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País: United States

Región: North America