Fate of Missouri marijuana initiative petition unclear as signature count continues

Another initiative petition that would have established ranked-choice voting has already fallen short of signatures needed to appear on the ballot.
Whether Missouri voters will get a chance to legalize recreational marijuana in November is still in question.

The latest incomplete tabulations from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office, obtained under a Sunshine Law request, show the Legal Missouri 2022 initiative is short the necessary signatures in four of the six Congressional districts to make the ballot.

And those same tabulations confirm what backers of a ranked-choice voting initiative called Better Elections said in June: their proposal will not be on the November ballot.

The biggest obstacles for the initiative campaigns were the COVID-19 pandemic, which made signature gathering difficult, and a large number of signatures from unregistered people, said Sean Nicholson, campaign manager for Better Elections.