AMENDMENT 7 BALLOT CANDY AND THE SINGLE SUBJECT RULE: HOW THE LEGISLATIVE SUPERMAJORITY AMENDED THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO LIMIT VOTER CHOICE

During the most recent general election, Missouri voters passed Amendment 7, a legislative ballot measure which erected bulwarks around an election process that limits voter choice. This article will discuss some of Missouri’s constitutional protections against deceptive ballot provision packages, specifically the single subject rule, as well as why they necessarily fall short of total efficacy. It does not argue for a more stringent application of the rules, because doing so would have implications for one of Missourians’ most powerful tools of direct democracy. The paper will examine Amendment 7 for its use of “ballot candy” that legislators successfully dangled to push unpopular rider provisions past unsuspecting voters and enticed them to undermine their own interests.