I've been seeing some misinformation going around specifically about Amendment 3 in Missouri, especially coming from its politically-connected supporters.

Let's go through 7 of the claims.

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Claim 1: Clean Missouri in 2018 purposefully hid the fact that it was changing how we do redistricting in Missouri.

No. Clean Missouri's reforms to gerrymandering were pretty clear. Redistricting was the first bullet point: https://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/petitions/2018BallotMeasures

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That's not the case for Amendment 3. Amendment 3 purposefully buried its redistricting changes under two seemingly attractive bullet points.

Folks, the redistricting changes are worth well more to politicians than the $105 in ethics changes Amendment 3 offers.

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Amendment 3 also does not simply reverse Clean Missouri. It adds key changes that will give the legislature huge powers to decide who counts and who doesn't in our representative government.

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Claim 2: Clean Missouri gives one person all the power to make districts.

No. No one person has the power to pick the mapmaker under Clean Missouri.

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The law is very clear: The Auditor has to accept applications from qualified people. If you think she's not doing that, she can be sued for violating the state constitution.

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Fortunately, the Auditor's Office has made the process very transparent. You can see the applicants here: https://auditor.mo.gov/demographerapp 

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The Auditor has to bring at least three applicants to the State Senate Majority and Minority Leaders (one Democrat, one Republican, unless a 3rd party has a really good year, I suppose).

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If they cannot agree on an applicant, they can each eliminate 1/3 of the applicants, and then the demographer is chosen by lottery.

The actual demographer can never be selected by the Auditor.

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Additionally, Clean Missouri kept the bipartisan commission that has been involved in the redistricting process in Missouri, and that commission has the opportunity to make changes to the map.

No one person has the power to draw the map on their own.

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And now instead of making judges - the majority of which do not have training in mapmaking - the backstop to the process, we make a professional who goes through a whole selection process that backstop.

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Claim 3: The old way doesn't need to be changed because Democrats and Republicans won.

Yes, we did have Democratic majorities and Republican majorities under the old way of doing things. But technology has changed a lot of things.

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Since the widespread use of mapmaking technology, the redistricting process has become way more sophisticated, and so has the gerrymandering process. Democrats and Republicans in power benefit when they can lobby and manipulate the decision-makers.

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I know Democrats and Republicans who had maps drawn not to benefit us, but to make sure their backyards made it into stretched-out districts.

The new districts won't change the majority-power party in Missouri.

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Alabama's football team isn't worried about a new pylon camera to make sure that a touchdown is a touchdown. They just play football better right now.

We should make sure fairly drawn district are fairly drawn.

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Claim 4: There's a lot of outside hidden dark money coming to support Clean Missouri.

You all know I hate dark money. I'm not thrilled at all about the funding sources involved in Missouri's politics on just about any issue.

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Ask your state representatives to eliminate hidden dark money spending so we can at least see where the money is coming from. I've proposed the End Dark Money Act for the last two years and would be happy to work with any of you to do it on both a local and statewide level.

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For what it's worth, Clean Missouri did try to make it harder for folks to hide their political contributions in our state, and those provisions are included now in our state constitution as a result of the campaign. We need to go further.

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Claim 5: Amendment 3 is better because it was proposed by our legislature instead of by the People.

No. Amendment 3 is full of legal issues. Don't take my word for it; the Republican in charge of the committee where this Amendment came from said so:

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Passing Amendment 3 will cost us a lot of money in court. And even the summary admits it will cost local government an unspecified amount of money too. We don't have money to throw out in court or to take away from our local towns, especially right now.

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Claim 6: Amendment 3 just reverses Clean Missouri.

No. Amendment 3 gives the legislature a lot more power to determine how to count us for representation purposes in our state, like not counting kids.

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Some state elected officials say they would never do such a thing, but read the language. There are no protections for us at all. The next group of legislators could come in and say, "Well, you know what, why should we count kids?" And they'd have the power to do that.

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If you believe in limited government, make legislators write a bill that does that. Amendment 3 does not. It would make Missouri the first state to have the power to stop counting children and non-voters for purposes of redistricting.

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Since the founding of the United States, the argument has always been that even non-voters, including at the time of founding women and children, should have access to their government if we're going to have a functioning Republic. Amendment 3 does away with that principle.

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Claim 7: Amendment 3 helps protect rural communities against urban ones.

No. Check out the map here: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/gerrymandering-away-missouris-future

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Southwest Missouri, Saline and Pettis Counties, Kansas City and the surrounding areas, St. Charles, and St. Louis County all lose representation under Amendment 3, as do plenty of others.

Actually, St. Louis City would see some of the biggest gains.

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This isn't about rural vs. urban. It's entirely about keeping powerful people in power. That's why Clean Missouri was put on the ballot by people and signatures and organizing, and it's why Amendment 3 was put on the ballot by politicians who stand to lose the most.

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I don't think Clean Missouri was perfect. But we know our legislators aren't either. That's why we don't give our government so much power like Amendment 3 proposes.

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And it's definitely why we should not set yet another precedent of the People of Missouri voting overwhelmingly for something and then having the legislature immediately try to reverse us.

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Amendment 3 was drafted wrong, will cost Missouri and our local towns a lot of money, grants huge unchecked powers to politicians, and eliminates solid reforms to help us be better represented in government.

Vote No on 3.

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