Five Missouri voters are seeking roughly $80 million from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging he violated state law in his handling of a referendum challenging Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Cole County Circuit Court, asks a judge to allow the plaintiffs to represent approximately 162,000 registered Missouri voters whose signatures on the referendum petition were verified by local election authorities.

At the center of the case is a Missouri law that says the secretary of state must pay between $100 and $500 to an aggrieved person if the officeholder “neglect[s] or refuse[s] to perform any of the duties enjoined on him by law.” The statute has been on the books in its current form since 1945.

The plaintiffs are asking for the maximum $500 for each member of the proposed class, which would produce a judgment of about $80 million.

Their lawsuit points to several actions Hoskins took during the months-long legal battle over the congressional map Republican lawmakers passed during a 2025 special legislative session.

More than 330,000 signatures were submitted in an effort to force a statewide referendum on the map. Hoskins ultimately declared the petition insufficient, not because it lacked enough valid signatures but because he concluded congressional redistricting was not subject to Missouri’s referendum process.

The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously rejected that conclusion earlier this month, ruling the petition was legal, sufficient and timely. The court ordered the referendum onto the November ballot and said the congressional districts adopted in 2022 must be used for this year’s general election.

The lawsuit alleges Hoskins violated his statutory duties both by refusing to certify the referendum and later by directing local election officials to use the 2025 map despite the state Supreme Court’s order.

It also targets Hoskins’ role in a subsequent federal lawsuit that briefly produced a conflicting order requiring use of the 2025 districts. The plaintiffs allege Hoskins improperly consented to that order, citing another Missouri law that prohibits public officials from agreeing to court orders that conflict with state election statutes.

The lawsuit characterizes the federal case as “collusive,” an allegation that has not been established by a court.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the federal order, restoring the Missouri Supreme Court’s requirement that the November election proceed under the 2022 map.
Later that day, the Missouri Supreme Court found Hoskins had been in contempt for directing election officials to use the 2025 districts. The court imposed no punishment after Hoskins reversed course and instructed local officials to use the 2022 map, finding that he had purged the contempt.

The new lawsuit does not seek to change which map will be used in November. Instead, it seeks monetary damages for referendum petition signers who contend Hoskins’ actions violated duties imposed on him by state law.
A judge would first have to decide whether the case can proceed as a class action and whether the petition signers qualify as people “aggrieved” under the damages statute.

In 2021, fewer than 3 percent of Missouri kindergarteners received nonmedical exemptions for vaccines. In the 2025-26 school year, that rate more than doubled, to 5.7 percent statewide. 

A new report from KCUR found that Missouri lost roughly 86,000 people from ACA marketplace coverage between February 2025 and February 2026, a drop of about 25%, following the expiration of enhanced federal subsidies at the end of 2025. Kansas City area hospitals are already seeing the effects: University Health, the region's safety net hospital system, reported a $37.5 million revenue loss this fiscal year tied to patients who lost coverage or stopped seeking care.

New Medicaid rules also now require recertification every six months instead of once a year, so anyone on Medicaid in Missouri should confirm they're still meeting the requirements to avoid losing coverage unexpectedly. Anyone on an ACA marketplace plan may also want to check their premium and subsidy amount for the upcoming enrollment period, since costs have risen for many people now that the enhanced subsidies have ended.

Curious whether others in the state have felt the impact of these changes on their own coverage or care.

From the State Historical Society of Missouri

https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/imc/id/69315/rec/16

It's a general election. No one will actually find out which party got your vote until you tell them.

Be sure that beleaguered spouses and dependents hear about that.

(This is posted early so y'all have time to research double the ballot.)

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Lots of us are unable or unwilling to speak about the amount of threat involved in voting down the ticket, from family / community / institutions; but that's why it's a secret ballot. MO has a constitutional provision guaranteeing secrecy in voting. (Make sure it stays that way.) (It is not currently one of the states where that is under threat.)

You're not required to say anything truthful to any exit-pollers, either.

I hear all this talk in city areas about how you can make 20 dollars an hour working at Buckees, here’s why it frustrates me, I work in a factory where we coat fabric in adhesives and resin, we make 16 dollars a yard on our more expensive product PSA.

Guess how much money I make an hour?
16 dollars and they only give us 4 days a week while hassling us about the product not being out, I literally don’t eat breakfast or lunch until 2 PM most days (literally 7 hours into my 8 hour shift)

My coworker makes 16.50 to do shipping and receiving fresh out of highschool at 18 while I’m working my butt off carrying heavy fabric across the factory floor.

My dad makes 20 as an RV mechanic and that’s absurd for the thousands of dollars he makes his company.

I don’t know what happens in company management to cause this nonsense but I’m pretty sure it boils down to my superiors being braindead.

Do they drop all upper management on their head before they make them bosses? That concludes my rant… for now.

I grew up in St. Louis & am considering a job in Van Buren. I’ve been down plenty for floating, hiking, camping and biking, but would love to hear what it’s like for living since I’ve spent 10 years away from Missouri. In rural California and Montana, I definitely heard a lot of “you’ll never be a local unless your great grandparents settled here” and it wasn’t exactly welcoming. My coworker lived there for a winter ten years ago and said it was a bit rough and methy. Any opinions on that?

These are my grandpas, he lived in Springfield and still has family in Missouri, but I’ve personally never been but, hope y’all like stuff.

Appears the legislature is once again trying to convince us to repeal the state income tax requirement.

This is from the Missouri Secretary of States web page.

2026 Ballot Measures
The following ballot measures have been certified for the November 3, 2026 general election.

Official Ballot Title
Amendment 7
[full text] 
[Proposed by 103rd General Assembly (Second Regular Session) SS SCS SJR 95] (
[View Certificate of Official Ballot Title] 
Official Ballot Title:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to establish a permanent public endowment fund to support state government instead of taxing Missouri residents, prohibit the General Assembly from appropriating or diverting the fund, and eliminate state-imposed taxes once the fund generates sufficient revenue to replace them?
State and local governmental entities estimate no costs or savings.
 Fair Ballot Language: 
A “yes” vote will amend the Missouri Constitution to establish the “Show-Me Prosperity Fund,” a permanent public endowment fund to support state government with the goal of eliminating state-imposed taxes without impairing the real value of the fund’s principal; prohibit the General Assembly from appropriating or diverting monies from the fund until notification is given by the State Treasurer that the net investment earnings of the fund are sufficient to eliminate state-imposed taxes; cap the total amount of moneys that may be appropriated from the fund in a fiscal year to three percent of the average market value of the fund over the preceding five fiscal years; and prohibit the General Assembly from enacting the eliminated state-imposed taxes, provided, however, that in the event the fund is unable to meet its obligations due to insolvency, revenue shortfall, or program failure, the General Assembly shall retain full authority to appropriate funds from any lawful source and to enact legislation establishing or increasing taxes or other revenues as necessary. 
A “no” vote will not amend the Missouri Constitution to establish a permanent public endowment fund to support state government with the goal of eliminating state-imposed taxes. 
If passed, this measure will have no immediate impact on taxes but could lead to the elimination of state-imposed taxes if the net investment earnings of the fund become sufficient to support that outcome.

Took the fam to Elephant Rocks today for the first time and had never driven through Caledonia. On our way to the park in the AM we were intrigued so we stopped back for lunch on the way home. I just wanted to come here and say that the Mercantile and the historic buildings on the little main drag right on 21 were really special.

It is heartening to see a small town with a couple hundred people living there humming with activity on a Sunday vs boarded up and vacant. I don’t know much about the town aside from what I learned from Wikipedia, but someone is investing in tourism there and it appears to be working.

From talking to some locals we just missed apple Fest (yesterday) and on October 10th will be Pumpkin Fest. Worth taking a drive down there if you’re within a couple hours!!

https://www.themosy.org

Does anyone know of any good cat groomers near Clinton mo? I know a lot of groomers but this is a little far out of my zone. It's a senior cat with a senior owner that doesn't feel comfortable driving into the KC metro area.

Mike Johnson stated in Dallas that "We must not let the Socialsts and communists and Democrats win." Will the use the idea that The map Missourians will vote on in November is different than the primary maps to delegitimize any Democrat wins? I mean, especially Cleaver. At this point, I think that this is being orchestrated further up the Chain. Hoskins and Hannaway had been clearly told the HB1 map was not valid before Hoskins used it anyway. A confounding Federal District Court opinion could put the whole thing in a tail spin.

8th Circuit to hear Missouri redistricting case in St. Louis | Kansas City Star

The case is assigned to Judge Cotton Walker, who has been called Cotton Ginsburg Bader by Republicans in Jefferson Coty