Voters can overturn Missouri’s new gerrymandering system: NPR

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As of late, on any given day, you’ll find Len Villaluz knocking on doors all over Kansas City urging people to sign a petition that would let voters decide the fate of the state’s new congressional map.

“There’s a sense of dissatisfaction, even for ordinary voters who don’t participate as much,” Villaluz says. “We have to make up for the lack of representatives who were elected to do their simple duty and carry out the will of the voters. Instead, they believe we don’t know what’s best for ourselves.”

Missouri is the second state in the country, along with Texas, to manipulate the congressional map after President Donald Trump launched an election campaign. Redistricting battle at the national level in July to try to maintain control of the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.

Multiple other states could soon follow, including North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Ohio and Kansas. California is trying to counter Republican efforts by… Redistricting favors DemocratsIf voters approve a constitutional amendment next month.

Missouri’s Republican Governor, Mike Kehoe, signed the new map into law late last month. The state had six Republicans and two Democrats in Congress, but the new plan targets Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II’s seat in Kansas City.

But with Villaluz and about 3,000 other volunteers, a group called People Not Politicians Missouri is working to flip the state’s new map. If they succeed in getting more than 106,000 signatures across the state by Dec. 11, a referendum will be held in 2026 for voters to decide whether they want to keep it or reject it.

The group says it has already collected more than 100,000 signatures and is still collecting more. If they get the signatures they need, the referendum will hold up the map until voters weigh it next year.

Villaluz says everyone she spoke to was excited about the signing. She has visited five neighborhoods so far around Kansas City, which will be divided into three Republican-leaning districts under the new map. Villaluz even took her petition to the last Chapelle Rouen concert To obtain signatures.

“Everyone who stops and hears what the petition is about is ready and willing to sign,” Villaluz says. “Whatever your vote is, it’s going to be diluted by the maps, and no one wants that.”

Missouri Attorney General and Secretary of State Fight Back

Not only does People Not Politicians Missouri have to collect enough signatures, it also has to face opposition from the state’s top election officials. State Attorney General Catherine Hannaway File a lawsuit in federal court Arguing that the redistricting referendum violates the United States and Missouri constitutions.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins approved the group’s referendum petition this week He rejected it at first. But in a press release, Hoskins claimed that none of the signatures collected before his approval date were valid.

“The process is clear,” Hoskins said in the statement. “Every Missourian deserves to trust that ballot procedures follow the law – not out-of-state agendas or campaigns of confusion. Missouri values ​​fairness and integrity, and this process reflects that.”

People Not Politicians Missouri’s executive director, Richard von Glahn, said in a statement that Hoskins is “intentionally spreading misinformation for political purposes,” and that according to the state constitution, the group was allowed to begin collecting signatures before the secretary of state’s approval.

“Our campaign has collected signatures at a historic pace — I have never seen Missourians unite and mobilize so quickly,” von Glahn said in the statement. “We will not be intimidated or distracted. This referendum will be qualified, and Missourians — not politicians — will decide the future of equitable representation in our state.”

the Democratic National Committee She joined the referendum effort and is contributing more staff and money to the cause. A A large number of lawsuits A lawsuit has also been filed to challenge the new areas.

A legal effort too

Rebecca Amezcua Hogan is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to block Hoskins from using the map to hold a primary or general election for Congress, and says mid-decade redistricting without a new census is unconstitutional.

“My voting power will be diluted,” says Amezcua-Hogan. “I feel like I’m not represented. And I think that at least on a personal level, for issues that are close to my heart and that I’ve been working on for years, that would be very frustrating.”

Amezcua-Hogan is running as a progressive candidate for Kansas City Council. The district you want to represent will be divided into three different congressional districts if the new map is implemented. When she speaks to voters about her campaign, Amezcua-Hogan also collects signatures for the referendum effort.

She says Kansas City is already competing for federal resources, and dividing it into three districts will only make it more difficult.

“Kansas City is really at a point where we’re dealing with a lack of affordable housing, a lack of mental health resources, a lack of transportation,” Amezcua-Hogan says. “It looks like we’re already fighting an uphill battle, and that uphill battle is only going to get worse.”

Most of them, with the exception of Republicans, are on board

Missouri’s new congressional map easily passed the Republican-dominated Missouri Legislature in its week-long special session.

Michael Davis represents a suburb south of Kansas City and is one of the lawmakers who championed the new map. He is part of the State Freedom Caucus, a group of Republican lawmakers aiming to push the party to the right.

Davis says Missourians elected Republican legislators because they trusted them to do what they thought was best in redistricting.

“We have to send a conservative message to D.C.,” Davis says. “The best way to do that is to send seven Republicans to ensure Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

But 15 Republicans — including John Patterson, speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives — voted against the map in the state legislature. Almost all of them belong to parts of the state targeted for redistricting or to areas that will be redistricted.

Republican state Rep. Bill Allen represents part of Kansas City’s northern territory that is evenly divided between parties. He opposes mid-decade redistricting and said he’s disappointed that Missouri appears to be following the lead of Texas and Trump in doing so.

“I think I heard from one or two voters who wanted me to vote for it, and almost everyone I heard was against,” Allen says. “The representative’s job is to represent the region, not the party, and certainly not the president. Only the region I represent, 39,000 people. Their will is my responsibility.”

Villaluz says she plans to continue collecting signatures over the next two months, until the group finds out if it has done enough to put redistricting on the ballot and possibly reverse Missouri’s gerrymandered map.

“I feel like the Republican Party is using Missouri as a guinea pig,” Villaluz says. “They think the average voter in Missouri is dumber than us, and they think they can get away with a lot here in the Red Bridge State, but that’s not the case.”

Villaluz says voters across Missouri will not sit idly by, and she believes they will have the final say.