MoCRI initiative misses ballot
May 6, 2008
The Missouri Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot initiative that would ban most forms of affirmative action, did not receive enough petition signatures to reach the ballot for the Nov. 4 General Election this year. The deadline to turn in signatures was Sunday.
The initiative is similar to initiatives in four other states. It also failed to reach the ballot in Oklahoma and awaits decision in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.
Former University of California Regent Ward Connerly spearheaded the initiative. He proposed a similar initiative in California, which passed in 1996.
The initiative was heavily debated and controversial in Missouri, and many groups celebrated when MoCRI did not get the required amount of signatures.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tracked down and shadowed petitioners in an attempt to educate voters on the issue at hand.
ACORN head organizer Jeff Ordower said there were paid teams and volunteers who worked for voter education, and that it was influential in keeping the initiative off the ballot.
“Missouri is a state that believes in fairness and equality,” Ordower said. “Once our voter educators got the word out, people learned quickly that this initiative was bad for everyone.”
By Any Means Necessary, a Detroit-based coalition that supports affirmative action, also had a presence in Missouri during the weeks leading up to the petition deadline. Members of the coalition said they were thrilled to hear the fate of the initiative.
“I’m very excited and it’s just proof that when you fight you can win,” BAMN organizer Tristan Taylor said. “There is a new civil rights movement.”
BAMN National Chairwoman Shanta Driver said the coalition’s success in Missouri and Oklahoma bodes well for other states.
“Both Oklahoma and Missouri prove that BAMN’s perspective of focusing on exposing the racist fraud in Connerly’s signature gathering will keep proposals off the ballot and provide the key to victory,” Driver said in a news release.
Despite the final outcome, MoCRI director Tim Asher said in a news release he is encouraged by the overall effort.
“These developments are certainly not what the many volunteers and supporters of MoCRI had anticipated,” Asher said in the release. “It is particularly disheartening when you consider our elected officials played such a prominent role in derailing our effort.”
Asher referenced a six-month court battle over the ballot language as an obstacle to gather enough signatures. He said special interest groups including ACORN, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People “aggressively” fought to preserve race-based programs.
“They have a vested interest in maintaining the status-quo,” Asher said in the release. “The system serves them well and they are putting those tax dollars to use by paying people to discourage the democratic process.”
Other initiatives also faced trouble getting on the ballot in Missouri.
A ruling handed down by the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals changed the language on the stem cell ballot summary. The initiative would have changed the definition of human cloning and banned some of the research approved by voters in 2006.
“This ruling validates our summary statement as fair and accurate, while only replacing one word,” a Secretary of State office release stated. “Missourians deserve to be able to clearly understand what they are voting for, and our office will continue to work to ensure fairness and integrity in all aspects of the elections process.”
Cures Without Cloning, the group that put forth the initiative, said they would not have had enough time to gather the necessary amount of signatures after the court ruling was announced Friday, but that the campaign will continue into the 2010 election cycle.
“Missouri Cures Without Cloning is committed to banning human cloning and taxpayer funding of human cloning in Missouri,” CWC chairwoman Lori Buffa said in a statement. “As we continue to share the truth about human cloning in Missouri, more and more of our fellow citizens will join us in supporting a true ban on human cloning in 2010.”
Also absent from the 2008 ballot will be the 18 To Drink initiative, which aimed to lower the legal age of drinking to 18.
Organizer Michael Mikkelsen said he plans to reintroduce the initiative for the 2010 election, and that he has learned a lot this year on how he will improve.
“One thing we’re going to focus on is raising money for the campaign,” he said. “If we get better organized I’m optimistic we can still build the structure to get it done.”
Mikkelsen said he has a large database of supporters now, many of which come via Facebook.com. He said he and other 18 To Drink organizers would analyze which districts would be best to campaign in and gear toward college students.
“We’re going to start working on it immediately,” he said.
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