A case over whether Secretary of State Denny Hoskins can throw out thousands of signatures for a Missouri redistricting referendum is effectively on hold.
People Not Politicians sued Hoskins after he said he would not count signatures collected before the middle of October. That group then turned in more than 300,000 signatures, likely more than enough to make the ballot even without any gathered before mid-October.
Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh said Friday that he is pausing the case, pointing out that it may be moot if the referendum qualifies for the November 2026 ballot.
“Currently, to the court’s knowledge, no signatures have been officially accepted or rejected. Conceivably, this could be enough signatures to place the referendum on the ballot thereby mooting the issues presented in the case at bar,” Limbaugh wrote. “Therefore, the court will hold this case in abeyance until the requisite number of signatures have been certified or up until enough signatures have been rejected so as to prevent plaintiffs’ referendum from appearing on the ballot. It is further ordered that Secretary Hoskins preserve all signatures filed with his office, whether those signatures are accepted or rejected, until further order by this court.”
Hoskins told St. Louis Public Radio this week he is not disposing of the pre-Oct. 14 signatures.
“Currently, we are keeping all the signatures that were gathered before October 14 separate from those that were gathered after October 14,” Hoskins said Tuesday. “We are not counting those signatures, but we are keeping them in case a court order happens or something happens that says that those signatures must be counted.”
In a statement on Friday, People Not Politicians spokeswoman Elsa Rainey said: “Judge Limbaugh recognized that the key issue right now is whether the submitted signatures are certified. No signatures have been accepted or rejected yet, and the court ordered that they all be preserved.”
“We agree with the judge — let’s check the signatures,” Rainey said.
Hoskins has said he will send the signatures to local elections officials later in the month, adding that a decision will be made in late July on whether the proposed referendum goes to voters.
