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A first hearing will be held Thursday (September 5) on a lawsuit that seeks to block a ballot measure to permit sports betting in Missouri from being considered in November’s election.
Two state residents filed suit against Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft in the Circuit Court of Cole County arguing that Amendment 2, a measure that would amend the state's constitution to permit land-based and mobile sports wagering, failed to earn the required number of signature to qualify for the ballot.
To qualify for the ballot, supporters must collect signatures from 5 percent of the legal voters in at least six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts.
The lawsuit alleges that Ashcroft set the required thresholds for signatures based on inaccurate data, and that as a result, the campaign failed to gain enough support in at least two of the six required districts.
In the two districts, the campaign backed by political action committee Winning For Missouri Education, was only found to have narrowly exceeded the required number of signatures, most notably in Congressional District 1, where the threshold was met by only 82 voter signatures.
In a response to the lawsuit, Winning for Missouri Education said that the plaintiffs unreasonably delayed taking action and that the campaign relied on the Secretary of State’s released thresholds when collecting signatures.
“The Secretary of State’s Office published, on its website, the number of signatures needed (both in total and for each congressional district) more than a year ago,” wrote Alexandra Cossette, attorney for the group.
“Plaintiffs waited an unreasonable time raising their counting issues considering signature gathering was completed months ago and the Secretary’s thresholds were published more than a year ago.”
Winning for Missouri Education also submitted a cross-claim in the event that the challenge is successful, arguing that voters who signed a petition for a different county than the one they are registered to vote in should have still had their signatures counted as valid.
Missouri’s general election ballot must be set by September 10, leaving open the distinct possibility that, if the lawsuit is successful, voters could yet weigh in on November 5, but the results of the measure would be invalidated, either before or after the election, depending on when the court rules on the case.
A recent poll from Saint Louis University and YouGov found that 50 percent of likely voters would support the amendment, which would permit licensed riverboat casinos and professional sports teams to offer land-based wagering and partner with one mobile operator each. The measure would also permit the Missouri Gaming Commission to issue two untethered mobile licenses.
According to the poll, 30 percent of voters said they would oppose the amendment, with 21 percent responding that they were unsure.
The campaign for a ballot measure came with significant financial support from FanDuel and DraftKings and public lobbying from operators and local professional sports teams.
The ballot initiative was advanced after several years of failed attempts to pass legislation through the state’s general assembly, where it often ran into obstacles related to other forms of gaming, most notably an ongoing effort by some lawmakers to regulate skill gaming machines.
The motivations behind the lawsuit opposing the ballot initiative remain something of a mystery.
The two residents, Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence, who filed the legal challenge are political consultants, while the attorneys representing them include prominent Missouri gaming lawyer Marc Ellinger, who has represented casinos and the Missouri Gaming Association in previous legislation.
A representative from the Missouri Gaming Association did not respond to a request for comment as to where the state's casinos stand on the ballot measure.
