• A hearing for a lawsuit against the Missouri sports betting initiative has been set for next week
• The first hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 5, at 10:30 a.m. CST
• Plaintiffs assert Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft incorrectly calculated number of valid signatures to appear on the ballot

A recently filed lawsuit to invalidate the results of a Missouri sports betting initiative campaign has an official start date.

The Circuit Court of Cole County has set an introductory hearing for the case on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 10:30 a.m. CST. The lawsuit asserts that Missouri Secretary of State John “Jay” Ashcroft  improperly certified the sports wagering petition for the upcoming general election.

The plaintiffs allege that Ashcroft incorrectly calculated the necessary number of valid signatures for the petition to appear on the ballot and the campaign did not reach the signature threshold for all necessary Missouri counties.

Incorrect Signature Calculation?

The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 21 by plaintiffs Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence, who claim the Winning for Missouri Education campaign came up short for validated signatures in Missouri’s First and Fifth Congressional Districts and Ashcroft’s determination of sufficiency was incorrect.

Lawyers for Wood and Lawrence, both of whom own consultancy firms in Missouri, have not responded to a request for comment.

Missouri requires a referendum initiative to collect signatures from 8% of valid voters from the previous gubernatorial election in at least six of its eight total congressional districts to be placed on a ballot.

However, the plaintiffs allege that Ashcroft did not correctly calculate the number of signatures because he failed “to take the total number of people who voted for governor in 2020, multiply that number by eight percent, and then divide that number equally among Missouri’s eight Congressional Districts.”

The lawsuit claims if Ashcroft had correctly calculated the number of necessary signatures, the initiative would have also fallen short in the state’s first and fifth Congressional District.

In the Secretary of State’s report, for the First Congressional District the campaign needed 25,632  signatures and submitted 55,864 signatures. The report noted that 25,714 signatures were valid, surpassing the necessary threshold by just 82 signatures.

In the Fifth Congressional District, the campaign submitted 34,818 signatures, of which 29,612 were classified as valid. The necessary signature threshold in that district was 28,458.

Winning for Missouri Education Approved to Intervene

The Winning for Missouri Education coalition submitted more than 340,000 signatures to place the sports betting question on the state’s November general election ballot. On Aug. 13, Ashcroft announced the initiative petition received a sufficient amount of valid signatures in six of eight Missouri Congressional Districts to be placed on the November 2024 general election ballot. According to the official signature results, the initiative did not reach the necessary requirements in districts six and eight.

Missouri requires a referendum initiative to collect signatures from 8% of valid voters from the previous gubernatorial election in at least six of its eight total congressional districts to be placed on a ballot.

The court agreed that Winning for Missouri Education has “an interest” in the matter and has been ruled to participate in the lawsuit.

Winning for Missouri Education Responds to Suit

Lawyers representing Winning for Missouri Education responded to the lawsuit in an official court document, asserting that the petition has sufficient signatures to appear on the November general election ballot.

“Plaintiffs fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The Sports Wagering Petition has sufficient signatures to qualify for the November 2024 General Election Ballot regardless of the method by which those signatures are counted or apportioned,” counsel wrote.

Counsel also noted that Wood never actually signed the initiative petition, so she does not have standing to claim that her “rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution” were deprived.

A request for comment from Winning for Missouri Education counsel was not returned. However, Bill DeWitt III, President of the St. Louis Cardinals, previously released the following statement regarding the lawsuit.

“All six Missouri professional sports teams support Amendment 2, which would make Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting, while providing tens of millions in new funding for Missouri classrooms each year. This effort to decertify our ballot initiative is completely without merit, as Missourians came out in force to sign the petition that will be on the ballot in November.”

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