HB 856 Summary

• Repeals and replaces 15 sections of Missouri law (Chapter 116) governing initiative and referendum petitions, with new definitions and procedures.

• Protects the people's initiative and referendum powers by establishing that mistakes by petition circulators, proponents, or government officials shall not invalidate signatures as long as the signer's intent is reasonably clear.

• Eliminates the requirement for petition circulators to register with the Secretary of State, removing barriers to signature collection while maintaining affidavit and notarization requirements.

• Establishes that initiative petitions may reserve space in the upper left-hand corner for proponent clerical purposes including document control and bar coding, and requires signature pages arranged in folders with no more than 100 pages per folder.

• Creates new criminal penalties including intentional misrepresentation of petitions (forging signatures or causing voters to sign wrong petition) and malicious obstruction of petition signing, each punishable by up to one year in jail or $10,000 fine; adds 55-day deadline for court decisions on ballot title challenges.