SJR74 would, if approved by the voters, require that any amendments to the Missouri Constitution receive a majority of votes cast both statewide and in a majority of congressional districts.
The Senate passed SJR74 (Perfected) on February 22, 2024, by a vote of 22 to 9. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because constitutional amendments in Missouri should not be proposed by popular initiatives subject to simple majority votes. The current threshold of only more than 50 percent of votes cast statewide is an insufficient safeguard for protecting the rights and liberties of Missourians—in every part of the state—from the “dangers of democracy” or a “tyranny of the majority.” Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution, expressly guarantees to “every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” which implies government limited to the ‘rule of law,’ as opposed to mere unchecked ‘majority rule.’