General election ballot reaches final form

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Yesterday, Secretary of State Jason Kander announced that the primary election results have been certified and will be used to move forward with the creation of the November ballot.

Additionally, Kander’s office announced this afternoon that write-in candidate Terry Hampton will be added to the 8th Congressional District’s ballot. Hampton will appear as an independent, which is her campaign platform — her website carries a theme of independence from political parties. Kander reported that four other candidates did not submit a sufficient amount of valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Gov. Jay Nixon previously announced ballot questions to appear on the November ballot which were proposed by the legislature. Amendment 2 “proposes amending the Missouri Constitution to allow relevant evidence of prior criminal acts to be admissible in prosecutions for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under eighteen years of age.”

The official ballot title reads:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended so that it will be permissible to allow relevant evidence of prior criminal acts to be admissible in prosecutions for crimes of a sexual nature involving a victim under eighteen years of age? If more resources are needed to defend increased prosecutions additional costs to governmental entities could be at least $1.4 million annually, otherwise the fiscal impact is expected to be limited.

Kander’s office previously announced that the initiative petition – “Relating to Teacher Performance Evaluation Systems” – was certified for the ballot as Constitutional Amendment 3.

The official ballot title reads:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:

require teachers to be evaluated by a standards based performance evaluation system for which each local school district must receive state approval to continue receiving state and local funding;

require teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system;

require teachers to enter into contracts of three years or fewer with public school districts; and

prohibit teachers from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the design and implementation of the teacher evaluation system?

Another initiative petition for early voting standards did not submit a sufficient amount of signatures for certification, but general election voters will see an early voting measure from the legislature – Amendment 6.

The official ballot title for Constitutional Amendment 6 (HJR 90) reads:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to permit voting in person or by mail for a period of six business days prior to and including the Wednesday before the election day in all general elections?

State governmental entities estimated startup costs of about $2 million and costs to reimburse local election authorities of at least $100,000 per election. Local election authorities estimated higher reimbursable costs per election. Those costs will depend on the compensation, staffing, and, planning decisions of election authorities with the total costs being unknown.

A second measure proposed by the legislature will be Amendment 10.

The official ballot title for Constitutional Amendment 10 (HJR 72) reads:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to require the governor to pay the public debt, to prohibit the governor from relying on revenue from legislation not yet passed when proposing a budget, and to provide a legislative check on the governor’s decisions to restrict funding for education and other state services?

State governmental entities expect no direct costs or savings. Local governmental entities expect an unknown fiscal impact.

The certified ballot for the November 4 general election will be distributed to local election authorities no later than Tuesday, August 26.