Voters in Missouri will be asked to consider four constitutional amendments to the state constitution on the Tuesday, November 4 ballot. We encourage voters to reject all of these proposed changes.
Amendment 2, “Prosecution of Sexual Crimes Against Children,” would make it permissible to allow relevant evidence of prior criminal acts to be admissible in prosecutions for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under 18 years of age. Allowing such evidence is inherently prejudicial, as it can cause a jury to convict based on a defendant’s past crimes – or mere allegations – without regard to the defendant’s actual guilt in the case at hand. VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 2.
Amendment 3, “Teacher Tenure,” would require teachers to be evaluated by a state-approved evaluation system, tie their professional survival, compensation and promotion to that performance data, limit teacher contracts to three years, and prohibit teachers from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the evaluation system. Amendment 3 removes local control of school districts and places it substantially in the hands of the state. It also significantly limits the bargaining power of teacher unions, one place where the core Democratic constituencies of labor and blacks do come together, and removes due process for teachers. It would do all this without any clear promise that our students would actually receive better instruction from better teachers. VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 3.
Amendment 6, “Early Voting,” would “permit voting in person or by mail for a period of six business days prior to and including the Wednesday before the election day in general elections, but only if the legislature and the governor appropriate and disburse funds to pay for the increased costs of such voting.” Amendment 6 is a sham early-voting measure that would prevent Missouri from enacting substantive early voting in the future. By constitutionally dictating the form early voting must take, Amendment 6 actually would impose new restrictions on the legislature’s power in regard to early voting and prevent it from extending the early voting period or allowing early voting on weekends. VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 6.
Amendment 10, “Withhold Overrides,” would “require the governor to pay the public debt, prohibit the governor from relying on revenue from legislation not yet passed when proposing a budget, and provide a legislative check on the governor’s decisions to restrict funding for education and other state services.” Amendment 10 would severely weaken the Missouri Constitution’s strong balanced-budget requirement by limiting the governor’s power to restrict spending when state revenue collections are insufficient to cover expenditures budgeted by the legislature. VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 10.