Missouri voters may decide on a veto referendum on the state’s new congressional district map in 2026. If certified for the ballot, this would be the 26th veto referendum Missouri voters will decide in state history.
Between 1906 and 2025, 530 veto referendums appeared on ballots in 23 states. Voters more often repealed the targeted laws than upheld them. Of these 530 veto referendums, 344 (64.9%) of the laws were repealed, while voters upheld 186 (35.1%).
A veto referendum is a ballot measure, initiated by citizens, that asks voters whether to uphold or repeal an enacted law. Twenty-three (23) states allow citizens to initiate veto referendums. Like citizen initiatives, proponents of the veto referendum must collect a certain number of signatures from registered voters in the state to qualify.
In order for a veto referendum to qualify for the ballot in Missouri, the number of signatures needed must equal 5% of the votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election in six of the state’s eight congressional districts. This means that, for 2026, the minimum number of valid signatures needed is 106,384. Proponents of the congressional map veto referendum submitted more than 305,000 signatures on Dec. 9, 2025.
Of the 25 veto referendums that appeared on Missouri’s ballots, one (3.8%) was approved, and 24 (96.2%) were defeated.
Missouri’s referendums covered 45 topics—some measures included more than one topic. The most frequent topic was administrative organization, with 7 referendums addressing it. Other common topics included alcohol laws, local government organization, the state judiciary, workers’ compensation laws, and highways and bridges.
The most recent Missouri veto referendum decided by voters was Proposition A, which overturned a right-to-work law that would have mandated that no person can be required to pay dues to or join a labor union as a condition of employment. Voters repealed the legislation, with 67.5% voting to repeal. This was the first veto referendum Missouri voters decided in 36 years, with the second-latest one decided by voters in 1982.
Of the 25 veto referendums Missouri voters decided, only one of the targeted laws was upheld by voters—Proposition 13 in 1920, which supported upholding state enforcement of prohibition laws. The referendum saw 53.4% of voters supporting prohibition, while 46.6% opposed it. The federal prohibition on alcohol took effect after the ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919 and was repealed nationwide after the ratification of the 21st Amendment in 1933.
Missouri voters have once before decided on a congressional map veto referendum, in 1922. Proponents gathered enough signatures to place the referendum on the ballot as Proposition 17, and voters rejected the proposed redistricting plan: 38.3% supported upholding the new map, and 61.7% supported repealing it. On Oct. 15, 1922, The St. Louis Star and Times wrote, "At the time of its passage it was asserted that it would insure the election of nine Republican and four Democratic congressmen from Missouri, leaving three districts doubtful. The Republicans assert that the congressional districts as at present arranged give the Democrats normally 9 or 10 congressmen and the Republicans 6 or 7, although 14 of Missouri’s 16 congressmen today are Republicans, having been swept into power by the Republican landslide of 1920."
A look at Missouri’s veto referendums is part of Ballotpedia’s historical ballot measures factbook—an inventory of all of Missouri’s ballot measures since 1908.
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