Elections: Constitutional Amendment-Initiative Petition

Plaintiff appealed from the adverse judgment in her petition for relief to challenge the official ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment by initiative petition. Plaintiff challenged the language of the Secretary of State’s summary statements for the initiative petitions and further challenged the omission of information from summary statements pertaining to two proposed amendments in the petitions.

Where the summary statements indicated how ballots would be transferred and counted where no such process was provided for in the proposed amendment, the statements were misleading to that extent.

Judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Sedey v. Missouri Secretary of State (MLW No. 74469/Case No. WD83356 – 23 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Mitchell, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Cole County, Green, J. (Charles W. Hatfield and Alexander C. Barrett, Jefferson City, for appellant) (Eric S. Schmitt, Attorney General, Jefferson City, and Jason K. Lewis, Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Special Litigation, St. Louis, for respondent)