The Missouri primaries are coming up two weeks from Tuesday*, and there will be a couple of state constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Amendment 4 changes what it takes for future citizen-initiated amendments to pass.  At present, if there are enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot at all, passing the amendment takes only a simple majority state-wide.  Amendment 4 would require separate majorities in each of the U.S. congressional districts.  This would make it virtually impossible for citizen-initiated amendments to ever pass again.  (Republicans are still upset about an amendment passed in 2024 that protected the right to reproductive freedom.)  Of course, there are no changes in the requirements for amendments initiated by the Republican-controlled state House and Senate.

Amendment 5 phases out the state income and property taxes and replaces them with sales taxes.  The goal is to have a tax cut for rich people and a tax hike for poor people.

If you haven’t guessed, I’m against both of them.

We have open primaries in Missouri:  when you get to the polling place, you tell the official whether you want a Democratic or a Republican ballot—it’s that simple; and there’s a cogent argument that, in a heavily gerrymandered district, the only election that actually matters is the favored party’s primary.

I’ll probably get a sample ballot in the mail in a week or so, at which time I’ll know who all the candidates are.  I doubt that I’ll have a good reason to vote in the Republican primary because I live in Missouri’s Second Congressional District which is gerrymandered safe-Republican, and I can’t imagine that my U.S. Rep., Ann Wagner, will have any serious competition.  I’ll probably vote in the Democratic primary for the most progressive candidates in the hope of sending a signal, in my small way, to professional Democrats.

*Two days after my 80^th birthday.  I’m looking forward to the election, but not to being an old fart (although that ship has already sailed).