A dispute over Missouri's congressional map could snowball into a legal and logistical elections crisis

[RandySF]

Missouri was one of the first states to heed President Donald Trump’s call for Republican-controlled states to redraw their congressional lines. But unlike the others that have done so, Missouri allows residents who don’t like a law passed by the legislature to gather signatures to put that law to a statewide vote. Opponents of the new Republican gerrymander did just that, and in December they submitted more than 305,000 signatures to the secretary of state — almost three times as many as are required to make the ballot.

Crucially, under the Missouri Constitution, a law that is referred to a public vote isn’t supposed to take effect unless and until voters approve it — meaning the mere existence of a referendum on the map should have been enough to prevent it from being used in the 2026 election. But, breaking from precedent, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins took the position that merely submitting the signatures wasn’t enough to put the map on hold. Instead, he said, the map would remain good law until his office officially verified all the signatures and certified the referendum for the ballot. That decision was legally challenged, but the Missouri Supreme Court sided with Hoskins.

As things stand today, the referendum still is not officially certified. Hoskins has until Aug. 4 to make a final determination. The problem is, Aug. 4 is also the date of the Missouri primary — and local election officials have to plan to hold that election under one map or the other. They have to assign voters to the appropriate districts in their computer systems as soon as possible and send out the first ballots to overseas and military voters by mid-June.

With the Republican gerrymander still technically on the books, Hoskins is telling county clerks to plan for the primary to take place under the new map — even though it’s very likely that the referendum got enough signatures to qualify.




https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/06/01/missouri-congressional-map-2026-election-secretary-of-state-denny-hoskins/