A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that an anti-abortion GOP official used misleading language to summarize a ballot question designed to restore abortion rights in the state.
Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker threw out a description of the amendment as written by the office of Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, an abortion opponent.
In his ruling, Walker said Ashcroft’s language was “unfair, insufficient, inaccurate and misleading.”
At least nine other states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights this fall — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota.
Ashcroft spokesperson JoDonn Chaney said the office is reviewing the judge’s decision.
“Secretary Ashcroft will always stand for life and for the people of Missouri to know the truth,” Chaney said.
Backers of the measure celebrated Walker’s decision.
“This ruling confirms what we’ve known all along — our opponents are trying to block a vote in November because they know Missourians overwhelmingly support reproductive freedom and will be voting yes on Amendment 3,” Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement Thursday. “Missourians deserve the chance to vote on Amendment 3 based on facts and today’s decision brings us one step closer to making that a reality.”
Posted by John3262005
1 Comment
We’ll see if this is over: Ultimately something similar happened 4 years ago when a proposition was sent forward to make sure the governor had full control of redistricting. Every judge on the line got involved until the last one still allowed a pretty deceitful ruling, so the measure passed by a bit, even though the most important conditions were hidden away from the summary.
Also note the other proposition in the ballot this year: It will ban non citizens from voting… and ban ranked choice voting. Once again, hoping for a summary that is red meat for the least well informed, while they make sure we keep getting the most extreme candidates possible.
It’s unfortunate that Jay Ashcroft, who makes John Ashcroft look like a statesman, used his time in office every inch of power he had to make the state worse. And the winner of the Republican primary that will replace him is an election denier. Our only saving grace here is that he tried to run for governor, but he lost the primary, so he’ll have to go back to pushing grandmas into incoming traffic as a way to spend his time. Maybe he’ll take up cigar smoking, and then spend all his time enjoying this pastime in the local neonatal intensive care unit.