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On Tuesday, voters in Kansas and Missouri overwhelmingly rejected ballot measures proposed by Republican lawmakers that aimed to restrict their democratic and human rights.

In Kansas, proposed Amendment 1 would have required direct elections for state Supreme Court justices. The measure was introduced by Republicans in the state legislature to counter the process for appointing jurists to the state’s highest court, which has protected reproductive rights over the past decade despite efforts by the GOP to pass laws restricting abortion.

As of 9 am Central Time on Wednesday, that measure was losing, with 61.3 percent of voters rejecting the idea. Several counties in the state, including in rural areas that have traditionally sided with Republicans, voted against it as well.

The rejection of the measure comes just four years after Republicans sought to reverse the state Supreme Court’s abortion protections in a different ballot measure in 2022.

Missouri voters also rejected a measure aimed at curtailing voters’ right to self-determination at the ballot box. Proposed Amendment 4 would have changed the ballot initiative process altogether. Instead of simply requiring a majority vote in the state to pass changes to state law, it would require a majority vote in every congressional district in the state. Such a measure would allow lawmakers to gerrymander the state’s political lines in order to prevent voters from passing ballot initiatives.

Missouri Ballot Measure Attempts to........

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