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March 21, 2025 |  By: Associated Press

Missouri voters are pushing back on lawmakers' efforts to overturn citizen ballot initiatives

Some Missouri voters are pushing back on lawmakers' efforts to overturn citizen ballot initiatives.
Missouri Republican lawmakers want to reverse the workers’ benefits law approved by voters in November. The law guarantees paid sick leave for workers and cost-of living increases to the minimum wage. Lawmakers are also proposing to undo parts of a new abortion rights amendment and make it more difficult to approve future constitutional amendments.


Missouri lawmakers have a history of such actions. They previously tried to block funding for a voter-approved Medicaid expansion and authored changes to voter-approved measures regulating dog breeders and legislative redistricting.


Frustrated citizen activists are fighting back. They are holding town-hall forums across the state seeking to build support to put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot limiting the Legislature’s ability to limit citizen initiatives.


“Our goal is to ban politicians from attacking the will of the people,” presenter Lindsay Browning told people gathered on a recent Saturday at the Missouri River Regional Library, blocks from the state Capitol.


Meanwhile, Nebraska lawmakers also are considering carving out exceptions to voter-approved minimum wage and paid sick leave laws.