Missourians side with all citizen-led initiatives
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Axios Visuals
Missouri voters rejected Republican-backed efforts to restrict abortion rights and redraw congressional districts Tuesday while approving new protections for citizen-led ballot initiatives, according to The Associated Press.
Why it matters: The results favor Missouri's direct-democracy tool, where citizen-led petitions can rewrite the constitution or set state law with a simple majority.
State of play: Here's where the measures stood as of 6am Wednesday, with an estimated 98% to 99% of votes counted. The Associated Press had not called every race.
No on Amendment 3: Voters rejected a Republican push to restrict reproductive care and abortion rights, 55.5% to 44.5%, according to AP, echoing a 2024 citizen-led vote that first enshrined abortion access in the state's constitution, this time with greater margins.
- "Two years ago, Missouri was the first state to overturn its abortion ban. Today reaffirmed that abortion access is what voters want," Missouri Abortion Fund communications director Robin Frisella said in a statement.
Yes on Amendment 6: Voters added protections to the citizens' initiative process, from 60% to 40%, according to AP, now requiring 80% of both state legislative chambers to overturn measures passed by a majority of Missourians.
- The rule, itself a citizen's initiative, also prevents lawmakers from weakening the process.
No on Amendment 7: Voters rejected the idea of a public endowment fund to eliminate state taxes, 60.5% to 39.5% according to AP, echoing a vote from the August primaries that said no to getting rid of state income tax.
Amendment 8: As of Wednesday morning, 51% of Missourians say yes to giving the state attorney general's office sole authority to prompt the removal of a county sheriff from office, while making sheriffs in all but three St. Louis area jurisdictions an elected position.
- 49% say no. The Secretary of State's office had not counted all the votes as of 6am.
No on Proposition A: Voters rejected Republicans' 2025 redistricted congressional map, 61.8% to 38.2%, the biggest margin of all the ballot measures.
- The result retains the 2022 map Missourians used in this election after a lengthy citizen initiative process that reached the U.S. Supreme Court three times.
- It rebukes Trump's push to redraw Missouri's congressional boundaries to favor Republicans and rejects the state's highest offices that pushed for the new map.
The bottom line: "Missourians have chosen individual freedoms over special interests, rejecting statewide Republican efforts to control our choices, take away our voices, and harm our quality of life," Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement.