Some Missouri Senate Republicans are looking to tighten requirements for initiative petitions -- measures that get on the ballot through gathering voter signatures -- with Senate Joint Resolution 11 .

Currently, petitions for changes to the Missouri Constitution and new laws require signatures equal to 8% and 5% of legal voters in two-thirds of the state's eight congressional districts respectively. If passed, initiative petition requirements almost double, increasing to 15% for constitution amendments and 10% for law proposals.

Under the proposed bill, required signatures in the Third Congressional District would increase from around 33,000 to around 62,000 for proposed amendments and from around 21,000 signatures to around 41,000 for proposed laws. The Fourth Congressional District would increase from around 29,000 signatures to 55,000 for amendments and around 18,000 to 37,000 for laws.

Those districts cover large parts of Mid-Missouri.

During the 2024 general election , three initiative petitions that went into effect were for legalizing sports gambling (Amendment 2), increasing the minimum wage and sick leave (Prop A) and removing Missouri's ban on abortion (Amendment 3).

If the proposed bill was in effect during the 2024 election, only St. Louis' First Congressional District would have had enough signatures to put Amendment 3 on the ballot. Even under current initiative petition rules, most districts only exceeded the requirement by around 5,000 votes.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Jason Bean (R-Holcomb), will discuss the bill in the Senate's Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee today at 1 p.m. in the Senate lounge.