Judge hears arguments in lawsuit against sports betting referendum
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Missouri judge will decide by Tuesday on a last-minute legal challenge to a November referendum aiming to legalize sports betting.
The challenge was brought by a pair of Missouri voters who contend Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft made procedural and istrative errors in his certification of the signatures submitted by the campaign.
The plaintiffs argued Ashcroft certified more than 750 voter signatures which he should have rejected for various reasons. Those signatures were collected from the First Congressional District, which the challengers say would not have met the legal criteria for ballot access if the Secretary of State’s office had employed the proper procedure and rejected ballots properly.
Attorneys for the plaintiff declined to comment for this story.
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Lawyers for the Secretary of State’s office and for the campaign behind the sports betting initiative, Winning for Missouri Education, argued in court that the challenge was based upon incomplete information.
For example, the challengers argued some of the signatures should have been rejected because they believe the signature listed on the petition documents don’t match those on file with the state.
Attorneys for the Secretary’s office pointed out that the challengers had access to only one signature, while the state keeps three on file.
“The truth of the matter is, not only we have the signatures getting the ballot, we have thousands more than we needed to get on the ballot,” said Jack Cardetti, a spokesperson for Winning for Missouri Education. “This process has been a part of Secretaries of State, Republicans and Democrats for decades now and lots of things have got on the ballot this way. And that’s why we know that the process works.”
Tuesday marks eight weeks before the Nov. 5 election and also marks the expiration of the court’s jurisdiction to order changes to what’s on the ballot for November.
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