JOHN R.

ASHCROFT
SECRETARY OF STATE
CAPITOL OFFICE JAMES C. KIRKPATRICK
STATE OF MISSOURI
(573) 751-2379 STATE INFORMATION CENTER
(573) 751-4936

Referendum Fact Sheet

2018-R002

The referendum process gives Missouri voters the opportunity to approve or reject the actions of the
legislature. The process begins when a person (known here as a filer) submits a referendum petition to
the Secretary of State. If the format is proper and the referendum is submitted correctly, the Secretary of
State certifies the Official Ballot Title, which includes a summary statement and fiscal note summary.
(The process is described in Sections 116.175, .180, .332 and .334, RSMo.) Once the filer of the
referendum receives notification that the Official Ballot Title has been certified, the filer may begin
collecting signatures. If the filer submits the minimum number of required signatures in six of eight
Congressional districts, and the appropriate number of required signatures is verified by local election
authorities, the Secretary of State will issue a certificate of sufficiency and the referendum will be placed
on the ballot in an upcoming election.

Timeline
Both houses of the legislature passed Senate Bill 19, the Right to Work bill, on February 2,
2017. Governor Eric Greitens signed the bill on February 6, 2017. The bill did not contain an
emergency clause and therefore would go into effect on August 28, 2017.
The Secretary of State received a referendum petition to call for a vote to approve or reject Senate
Bill 19 on February 21, 2017.
The Official Ballot Title was certified by the Secretary of State on March 28, 2017, and the filer
was notified. This includes the summary statement and fiscal note summary.
On August 18, 2017, the filer submitted 163 boxes of signature pages to the Secretary of States
office.
Over the next several weeks, Secretary of State staff reviewed the submission, made copies of the
signature pages, and sent them to Missouris 116 local election authorities to verify signatures.
Each local election authority completed their verification process by November 1, 2017, and
submitted a final tally of verified signatures to the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State conducted a final review and issued a certificate of sufficiency on
November 22, 2017.
Unless the General Assembly changes the date of the vote, a vote on the referendum will occur
during the next General Election, which is November 6, 2018.

Facts
This Right to Work referendum calls for voters to adopt (with a YES vote) or reject (with a NO
vote) Senate Bill 19, the bill that was originally set to become law on August 28, 2017.
The Missouri Constitution sets the required number of signatures to place a referendum on the
ballot. A filer of a referendum must meet the minimum requirement in two-thirds of
Congressional districts, which is currently 6 of 8 districts. The filer must submit a number of
signatures which is at least 5 percent of voters in the last gubernatorial election in that district.
To view the number of signatures required by district, see our publication, Make Your Voice
Heard. A chart on page 6 shows the number of signatures required.

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