‘Deceptive’ MO ballot question bans non-U.S. citizens from voting. It’s already illegal

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When Missouri voters head to the ballot box this year, they’ll be asked to sign off on a measure that would ban ranked-choice voting or ranking candidates by preference.

But the first bullet point that will appear on the ballot question has nothing to do with that issue. It instead will ask Missourians whether to ban non-U.S. citizens from voting in the state, a practice that is already illegal.

Disputes among lawmakers over whether to include a ban on non-citizen voting ultimately tanked a separate measure to weaken direct democracy. It was a key win for Democrats, who argued Republicans were using the non-citizen language as a way to deceive voters.

However, Missouri voters will still see similar language on the ballot this year. House Republicans, in the waning hours of the legislative session, passed a measure that included a ban on non-citizen voting attached to the ballot question that would outlaw ranked-choice voting.

The measure that will appear on the ballot, likely in November, will be a test for whether the non-citizen language can encourage enough Missourians to approve it. The provision has been referred to as “ballot candy,” or a way to entice voters as Republicans seize on fears about illegal immigration.

“It’s absolutely a deceptive ballot measure,” Rep. Eric Woods, a Kansas City Democrat, said in an interview.

The core of the ballot measure would officially ban ranked-choice voting in Missouri, a practice that is not largely used in the state that allows voters to rank their preferred candidates in order of preference. It includes a carve-out for St. Louis, which implemented a form of “approval voting” in municipal elections in 2020.

Supporters of ranked-choice voting argue that it gives voters a chance to elect candidates more closely aligned with their values and seeks to discourage polarization. But Republicans nationwide have targeted the practice as several states, such as Alaska and Maine, have implemented forms of ranked-choice voting.

House Republicans argued last week that ranked-choice voting would confuse voters.

“When I’ve worked the different poll locations, I’ve seen how confused oftentimes the voters are and I feel like ranked-choice voting will just add to that even more,” Rep. Aaron McMullen, an Independence Republican, said on Friday.

Larry Bradley is a member of a group called Better Ballot KC that is pushing for ranked-choice voting in Kansas City. He said in an interview that he felt Republicans attached the non-citizen voting provision to encourage Missourians to vote in favor of the measure.

“They decided to do that because they felt people wouldn’t look beyond that,” he said. “This is a blatant attempt to keep ranked-choice voting from being authorized for use in the state of Missouri.”

The specific language of the ballot question appears to acknowledge that only U.S. citizens can vote in Missouri. It will ask voters whether to make the state constitution “consistent with state law by only allowing citizens of the United States to vote.”

Some Republicans argue that the language in the Missouri Constitution, which states that “all citizens of the United States” can vote, is not strong enough. They’re pushing for it to state “only U.S. citizens.”

“In our opinion, the language in our constitution is ambiguous,” said Rep. Adam Schwadron, a St. Charles Republican running for secretary of state. “When you have the word ‘all’ citizens are able to vote instead of ‘only,’ that still does not preclude any local municipality from allowing non-citizens to vote.”

However, the Missouri Secretary of State Office’s website makes clear that individuals must be a “citizen of the United States” in order to vote. Missouri law also requires voters to state whether they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote.

The Missouri ballot question comes amid a growing focus on non-citizen voting by Republicans nationally.

Some falsely allege non-citizens are voting — or could vote — in large numbers, which election experts and Democrats say is a ploy to set the groundwork for former President Donald Trump to dispute the results of the election if he loses this November.

But some Republicans who have raised the issue are concerned about a small number of municipalities and school boards nationally that have allowed some form of non-citizen voting in local elections (federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections).

“There’s an effort to conflate two very different issues,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, which seeks to build trust in elections.

Becker, speaking with reporters this week, said good reasons exist to support or oppose non-citizen voting in local elections. But he emphasized that the practice is “exceedingly rare.”

Rep. Robert Sauls, an Independence Democrat running for state Senate, pushed back on Schwadron’s argument about the wording of the state constitution.

“Our constitution makes it clear that only citizens can vote,” he said in a statement. “I swore an oath to uphold the constitution and stand by it.”

Sauls added that he would prefer that the non-citizen language “not be used as ballot candy to get less popular issues across the finish line.”

Republican Gov. Mike Parson, in an interview with a Nexstar Media Group reporter earlier this month, also appeared to confirm that state law already bans non-citizens from voting.

“It’s already illegal for an illegal to vote in the state of Missouri,” he said. “We’ve already got that part.”

While Parson was speaking about the language attached to the separate legislation that would have made it harder for Missourians to amend the state constitution, he made his point clear.

“I’m passionate about, you know, you gotta be a citizen to vote and that’s all there is to it in Missouri. I think right now our laws are pretty strict on that,” he said. “We know that the Secretary of State’s Office, the way we do things here, that we’re not gonna allow that to happen.”

He went on to say that “the whole idea of making sure it doesn’t happen in the future, I think that’s what everybody’s trying to do.”

Dispute over ‘ballot candy’

Similar deceptive language became a flashpoint in the Missouri Senate over a measure that would make it harder for Missourians to amend the state constitution. Democrats mounted a record-breaking filibuster to push Republicans to remove the provision from the ballot question.

Republican senators, who were gripped by infighting this year, were unable to agree on cutting off the filibuster and the legislation died on the final day of the legislative session.

Despite the rancor over that legislation, the non-citizen voting provision was largely not discussed during debate on the anti-ranked-choice voting legislation last week.

Rep. Brad Banderman, a St. Clair Republican, pointed to this discrepancy on Friday, saying there was a “robust conversation” in both chambers over non-citizen voting attached to the other measure.

“It seems like we’ve been wringing our hands for about a week or two on this particular issue, but on this day…the other side of the aisle doesn’t seem to be standing at mics complaining,” he said.

Schwadron, the St. Charles Republican, criticized ranked-choice voting in an interview, saying that it has resulted in successful candidates who typically would not have won under other forms of voting. He specifically pointed to Republican-leaning Alaska, in which Democrat Mary Peltola was elected to the U.S. House in 2022.

“We feel that that is not a system that we want to see here in Missouri and, ultimately, it is a decision for the voters to make,” he said.

But for Bradley with Better Ballot KC, the current voting process is flawed and allows for candidates who receive less than 50% of the vote to win an election.

He also pointed to elections that have “spoiler candidates” in which voters feel a need to vote for a candidate that doesn’t completely align with their views in order to prevent another candidate from winning.

“When you go to ranked-choice voting, both those problems are solved,” he said. “You no longer are afraid to vote for who you really want to.”