During the primary election held yesterday, voters passed one of two proposed changes to Springfield's city charter designed to toughen the process for citizens to submit initiative petitions to the city.
City officials
have expressed concern about the process, saying it can too easily allow potentially illegal ordinances to either be passed by council or sent to a vote by the people, which can be expensive. The E-Verify ordinance passed by voters in February is a recent example of a petition that drew the ire of city officials due to allegedly illegal provisions. The city was sued over the ordinance
in May, placing enforcement of the law on hold. The ordinance would require businesses to use the E-Verify employment verification system or face penalties.
The passed amendment brings changes to the initial process, requiring the number of signatures for a petition to equal at least 7 percent of the total number of registered voters during the latest general municipal election in April. Previously, the process required only 10 percent of voters who participated in the previous election. The amendment passed by a slim margin, with 10,603 votes, or 52 percent, according to election results posted by the Greene County clerk's office. According to the clerk's
Web site, 42,884, or 23 percent of registered voters, casted a ballot yesterday in the county.
During the
April Greene County municipal election, 190,733 people were registered to vote, while 21,140 submitted ballots. With the latest amendment, an initiative petition would be required to have 13,351 signatures. Under the old rule, it would have been required to have 2,114 signatures.
Another city charter amendment related to the initiative petition process was cut down by voters. The amendment - which received 10,135 no votes, or 51 percent - would have put provisions in place to deal with issues such as legalities in initiative petitions, including creating a petitioners' committee that would have worked with city officials to determine the legality of the subject matter in petitions.
Yesterday, 17,268 people voted to continue a 1/8-cent sales tax to fund high-priority transportation improvements, including:
- construction of a bridge on Chestnut Expressway over railroad tracks near U.S. Highway 65;
- replacement of the Battlefield Road bridge over Highway 65 and construction of a new diverging diamond interchange;
- a project to widen the existing bridges on Republic Road over James River Freeway to provide capacity, bike lanes and sidewalks; and
- a project to widen Republic Road from Scenic Avenue to Golden Avenue to five lanes with curbs and gutters.
Greene County voters, with 12,788 votes, selected Republican Todd Akin as a candidate for the U.S. Senate to take on incumbent Claire McCaskill, the sole Democratic candidate in yesterday's primary. Akin was voted in by 217,240 people on the statewide level. He won against leading Republican hopefuls John Brunner, who received 180,678 votes statewide, and Sarah Steelman, who took in 176,082 votes, according to election results on the Missouri secretary of state's
Web site.
State positions:
- Incumbent Gov. Jay Nixon was chosen both on the local and state level to be the Democratic candidate for governor, while St. Louis business owner Dave Spence took the majority for the Republican nomination.
- For the lieutenant governor position, Susan Montee was selected overall as the Democratic candidate, and incumbent Peter Kinder, a Republican, was chosen. Local voters' opinions differed, as 58 percent chose Sara Lampe for the Democratic nomination and 48 percent of voters selected Brad Lager for the Republican spot.
- For secretary of state, Jason Kander was chosen on the state and local level for the Democratic nomination. Shane Schoeller won the Republican nomination.
- Ed Martin was selected as the Republican candidate for attorney general. He will face incumbent Chris Koster, who was the only Democrat to run in the primary.
- Incumbent Democrat Clint Zweifel will run against Republican hopeful Cole McNary for state treasurer. A third candidate, Libertarian Sean O'Toole, received 2,445 votes.
- Lynn Morris, founder and president of Ozark-based Family Pharmacy Inc., was selected as the Republican candidate for state representative for the 140th district. He won over Matthew Block, who owns public relations and marketing firm Matthew P. Block Enterprises LLC and co-owns Pure Captures Photography.
- John Sellars, director of the The Fremont retirement community and former executive director of The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County, was beaten by Elijah Haahr for the Republican spot in the District 134 House race.
