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Senate approves measure setting timelines and limits for ballot-language challenges, adds emergency clause
Summary
The Senate passed Senate substitute No. 2 for Senate committee substitute for SB 22 (24-10) to restrict repeated ballot-language rewrites and standardize summary lengths, and adopted an emergency clause by the same margin.
The Missouri Senate passed Senate substitute number 2 for Senate committee substitute for Senate Bill 22, a bill that changes how ballot language challenges are handled and sets uniform word limits for ballot summaries. The passage vote was 24 ayes and 10 noes. The senate also adopted an emergency clause for a section of the bill by the same vote.
Senator from Cass, State Senator and bill sponsor, said the bill creates a “three strikes” process for judicial challenges to ballot language and sets a 10‑week timeline to give clerks time to print ballots. The measure also standardizes the number of words allowed in summaries (the sponsor noted the current discrepancy where initiated petitions and joint resolutions had different limits) and includes an amendment allowing the attorney general to seek injunctions in specified circumstances.
The sponsor said the final iteration preserves signatures collected on the original petition when a rewrite is required after challenges. There was no extended floor debate; the sponsor renewed the motion for final passage and, after the roll call, moved adoption of an emergency clause which passed 24-10.
The journal records titling and perfecting motions were made and carried.
