New Orleans       Recently, I called out Florida and the efforts of Governor Ron DeSantis and his crew to try and put their finger on the scale to prejudice Florida voters in favor of choice on pregnancy by injecting a fake speculation of the cost to the state if the measure passed.  I thought they were way out of bounds and likely illegally interfering by using state money to oppose a citizen initiative on this measure.  A summary of what the state government has tried to do in Missouri, make them look a bit like pikers.

I’ve been hard on the Times recently, but they nailed this one:

Republican officials tried to prevent voters from having a say on the matter:

• Attorney General Andrew Bailey refused to sign a required fiscal note on the cost of allowing abortions in the state. The state auditor had said there would be no cost or savings to the amendment, but Bailey insisted it would cost Missouri billions of dollars. His refusal brought the petition process to a halt, until the A.C.L.U. sued him and took the matter to the state Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that Bailey had no power to substitute his financial estimate for the auditor’s.
• Senate Republicans tried to pass a bill that would have increased the threshold for passing constitutional amendments from a simple majority of voters to a majority of voters in a majority of congressional districts, giving more weight to rural rather than urban voters. Republicans backed off after Democrats staged a 50-hour filibuster to block the change.
• The state’s Secretary of State, Jay Ashcroft, wrote a misleading summary of the amendment to appear in polling places, saying it would allow abortion “at any time in pregnancy” and “prohibit any regulation of abortion.” The A.C.L.U. once again had to sue, and a state judge rewrote the summary to reflect its actual language.
• Republicans filed a suit to get the amendment removed from the ballot, claiming it did not properly identify the statutes to be modified. A circuit court judge ruled in favor of the Republican attempt, but this month the Missouri Supreme Court ruled there is no requirement that the amendment list the statutes.

My cut on all of this continues to be that any politician or party that is this afraid of letting the people speak their will on an issue, is frankly uncomfortable with democracy.  It’s not just about getting your way and wrapping yourself in your own ideology, it’s also about representing people in a democracy and their will.  It’s fair for politicians to speak their mind and try to persuade citizens to their position, but it’s across the line when it comes to using your position and the power of the state to stack the deck.  That’s what both Florida and Missouri state officials have tried to do.  I hope they realize that there will be a reckoning, and they may not like that either.