Missouri's Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (right) and disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens

Activists in Missouri are trying to put several initiatives on the 2020 ballot to expand voting rights, but Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has attempted to give the initiatives descriptive language that is so misleading that the measures' supporters have filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to obtain fairly worded descriptions.

The initiatives in question include automatic voter registration; the establishment of early voting; removing the excuse requirement to vote absentee by mail and letting voters permanently sign up to automatically receive a mail ballot in every election; the right to cast a provisional ballot for the correct offices even if voting at the wrong polling place; letting 16- and 17-year-olds "pre-register" to vote so that they're automatically added to the voter rolls when they turn 18; requiring routine audits of election results; and extending the time allowed for military votes to be received and counted.

However, Ashcroft, who is the son of former George W. Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft, certified deceptive language for the petitions that organizers must circulate to collect signatures in order to get their measures on the ballot. One measure is described as "mak[ing] voters' method of voting a public record," even though that information already is public.

Another says that a measure would "allow voters on election day to appear at the wrong polling place, vote on a wrong ballot, and have election judges later transfer the votes to the right ballot," which falsely implies that voters could vote on races they're ineligible to participate in. Rather, provisional ballots only let voters vote in the races that ballots at their correct polling place have in common with those at the incorrect polling place, such as those for statewide office.

Ashcroft has been rebuked in the past for similarly using his powers to try to stymie other progressive initiatives: Earlier this year, a state court overturned Ashcroft's decision to throw out an attempted veto referendum of an abortion restriction law. However, Ashcroft's foot-dragging still had its intended effect, since it delayed the certification of the proposed referendum long enough that organizers didn't have enough time to gather the necessary signatures before a key deadline to make the 2020 ballot.

The plaintiffs seeking fairly worded descriptions for their voting rights initiatives filed their lawsuit in state court; notably, a 4-3 majority on Missouri's Supreme Court was appointed by a Democratic governor through a merit-based system. Last year, the high court declined to disqualify an initiative from the ballot that reformed the state's redistricting and ethics rules, which voters subsequently passed.