Comparative Data on Missouri Constitutional Conventions
Contents
Enabling Act for Referendum on Whether to Call a Convention
Referendum on Whether to Call a Convention
Delegate Election
The Convention
Referendum on Whether to Ratify Proposed Constitution
Referendum on Whether to Call a Convention
Vote Year | Vote Date | Election Type | Yes # | No # | Total Vote # | Yes % | No % | Called? | Registered Voters # * | Turnout % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | 11/8/2022 | General | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. |
2002 | 11/4/2002 | General | 569,598 | 1,079,085 | 1,648,683 | 34.55% | 65.45% | No | ? | ? |
1982 | 11/2/1982 | General | 406,446 | 927,056 | 1,333,502 | 30.48% | 69.52% | No | ? | ? |
1962 | 11/6/1962 | General | 295,972 | 519,499 | 519,499 | 36.29% | 63.71% | No | ? | ? |
1942 | 11/3/1942 | General | 366,018 | 265,294 | 631,312 | 57.98% | 42.02% | Yes | N.A. | N.A. |
1921 | 8/2/1921 | Special | 175,353 | 127,130 | 302,483 | 57.97% | 42.03% | Yes | N.A. | N.A. |
1874 | 11/3/1874 | General | 111,299 | 111,016 | 222,315 | 50.06% | 49.94% | Yes | N.A. | N.A. |
1864 | 11/8/1864 | General | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | N.A. | N.A. |
1844 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | N.A. | N.A. |
1835** | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | N.A. | N.A. |
Note: There was no referendum on whether to call a convention for the 1820 and 1861-3 so-called “constitutional conventions.”
* Voter registration did not exist at all during much of the 19th Century and was not implemented for 100% of the population until well into the 20th Century.
** Isidor Loeb in his “Constitutional Conentions of Missouri,” 1920, says in a footnote that there was a convention call in 1835 that the voters defeated. No detail or citations were provided. Given Professor Loeb’s status as a historian of Missuri’s constitutional conventions, the 1835 defeat is included here, despite the lack of detailed evidence.
Enabling Act for Referendum on Whether to Call a Convention
Description | 1820 | 1843 | 1861 | 1864 | 1875 | 1922 | 1943 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Passed by Congress? | Yes (3/6/1820) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Passed by Legislature? | No | Yes (2/27/1843) | Yes (1/1/1861) | Yes (2/13/1864) | Yes (3/25/1874) | No | No |
Mandated by the state constitution? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
* The initiative passed in 1920 was ambiguous about whom was responsible for placing the constitutional convention referendum on the ballot. After the legislature failed to do so before it adjourned for the year, the Secretary of State was successfully lobbied to place the referendum on the ballot. The 1945 Constitution took away from the legislature its conflict of interest in placing the referendum question on the ballot by clearly giving that task to the Secretary of State.
Delegate Election
Description | 1820 | 1845 | 1861 | 1865 | 1875 | 1922 | 1943 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Election Type | Special | General | Special | General | Special | Special | Special |
Election Date | 5/1-3/1820* | 8/4/1845 | Feb. 1861 | 11/7/1865 | 1/26/1875 | 1/31/1922 | 4/6/1943 |
Districts # | 15 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 34 | 34 | 34 |
District Delegates # | 41 | 66 | 99 | 66 | 68 | 68 | 68 |
At-Large Delegates # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 15 |
Total Delegates | 41 | 66 | 99 | 66 | 68 | 83 | 83 |
* Delegate election was during the first three days of May 1820.
The Convention
Description | 1820 | 1845-6 | 1861-3 | 1865 | 1875 | 1922-3 | 1943-4 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Called by Legislature | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Called by Popular Referendum | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Start Date | 6/12/1820 | 11/17/1845 | 2/28/1861 | 1/6/1865 | 5/5/1875 | 5/15/1922 | 9/21/1943 |
End Date | 7/19/1820 | 1/14/1846 | 7/1/1863 | 4/10/1865 | 10/5/1875 | 11/6/1923* | 9/29/1944 |
Duration in Days | 38 Total Days | 58 Total Days | 853 Total Days | 77 Session Days | 74 Session Days | 287 Session Days | 215 Session Days |
# of Proposed Amendments | 0 | 0 | N.A. | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0 |
New Constitution Proposed? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Delegates Voting for Constitution # | 39 | 49 | N.A. | 38 | 60 | N.A. | 68 |
Delegates Voting Against Constitution # | 1 | 13 | N.A. | 13 | 0 | N.A. | 4 |
Delegates Not Voting | 1 | 4 | N.A. | 7 | 8 | N.A. | 10 |
Delegates Voting For Convention % | 95.1% | 74.2% | N.A. | 57.6% | 88.2% | N.A. | 81.9% |
* The convention recessed from 12/15/19922 to 4/16/1923 and from 9/7/1923 to 10/2/1923. There were 287 work days in total.
Referendum on Whether to Ratify Proposed Constitution
1820* | 1846 | 1865 | 1875 | 1924 | 1945 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type of Election | N.A. | General | ? | Special | Special | Special |
Date | N.A. | Aug. 1846 | 6/6/1865 | 10/30/1875 | 2/26/1924 | 2/27/1945 |
Constitution Proposed by Convention | ||||||
Yes # | N.A. | ~25,500 | 43,670 | 90,600 | N.A. | 312,932 |
No # | N.A. | ~34,500 | 41,808 | 14,302 | N.A. | 185,658 |
Total # | N.A. | ~60,000 | 85,478 | 104,902*** | N.A. | 498,590 |
Yes % | N.A. | 42.50% | 51.09% | 86.37% | N.A. | 62.76% |
No % | N.A. | 57.50% | 48.91% | 13.63% | N.A. | 37.24% |
Ratified?* | N.A. | No | Yes | Yes | N.A. | Yes |
Estimated Population **** | In 1820: 66,586 | In 1840: 383,701 | In 1860: 1,182,012 | In 1870: 1,721,205 | In 1920: 3,404,055 | In 1940: 3,784,664 |
Amendments Proposed by Convention | ||||||
Proposed Amendments # | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0 |
Ratified Amendments # | N.A. | N.A. | 0 | 0 | 6 | N.A. |
Convention's Cost (not adjusted for inflation) | $8,791 | $16,963 | $52,365 | $47,077 | $753,883 | $829,440 |
* In 1820, it was not felt that a ratification vote was necessary to ratify a proposed constitution. Instead, it was felt that a constitutional convention could ratify its own proposed constitution. The same was true of constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature. It was felt that if a constitutional amendment proposed by one legislature was also approved by the next legislature, then it was ratified. In 1861-3, the so-called constitutional convention did not have any ratification votes because no constitution or amendments were proposed.
** The 1846 ratification results are only approximations, as published by Evelyn Candace Cox and Isidor Loeb.
*** Only 41% of the total in the referendum to call a convention, presumably because the latter was a special election and the
former a general election.
**** Estimate population from census data from 1790 to 1870, and census data from 1900 to 2000.