In one of the biggest betrayals of voters, Republicans, aided by one Democrat, voted to ignore the will of 1.6 million Missourians.

In a rebuke to Missouri voters, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on May 13 voted 98-56 in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to reverse the Clean Missouri redistricting reforms voters overwhelmingly ratified in 2018. The measure, which the Senate approved in February, automatically goes on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot, although the governor has the authority to move it to the Aug. 4 primary.

During debate on Senate Joint Resolution 38, its Republican proponents repeatedly claimed voters didn’t understand what they were voting for with the wide-ranging Clean Missouri amendment, which in addition to changing how state legislative seats are drawn also contained provisions to limit lobbyists’ influence over lawmakers and make it easier for the public to access lawmaker records. However, the very first item listed on the ballot language for Clean Missouri was the redistricting provisions.

Under Clean Missouri, a nonpartisan demographer is charged with drawing new House and Senate districts based on constitutional criteria that emphasize maximizing the numbers of competitive districts. This system is slated to be used for the first time during the upcoming redistricting cycle in 2021, which will create districts to be used starting with the 2022 legislative elections.

SJR 38, dubbed Dirty Missouri by opponents, seeks to restore a modified version of Missouri’s old redistricting system, under which partisan commissions consisting of Republican and Democratic loyalists had first crack at drawing new districts, with the job kicked to a panel of six state appellate judges if the partisan commissions failed to agree.

One major deviation from the old system is SJR 38 erects hurdles that would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to challenge the constitutionality of redistricting plans in court. This is a significant change given that following the last redistricting cycle under the old system the Missouri Supreme Court struck down the initial Senate map for violating constitutional requirements and ordered the process to start over in order to create a valid Senate redistricting plan.

Another big change is SJR 38 would require legislative districts to be drawn based on an amorphous “one person, one vote” standard rather on the total population of the state, as has always been required in Missouri and every other state. During debate, Republican supporters could not or would not explain what this change is supposed to achieve. Democrats said the language would exclude children and adult Missouri residents who aren’t registered voters from being counted for redistricting purposes, thus unfairly skewing the composition of districts.