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Kansas And Missouri Voters Protected Civil Liberties – Here’s What Comes Next

On August 4, voters in Kansas and Missouri voted down ballot measures that would have opened the door for attacks on our democracy. In both states, politicians referred measures to the ballot to deceive voters and attempt to diminish the power of the people. But the people struck those efforts down by wide margins: 61% voted No in Kansas, and a striking 80% voted No in Missouri. The Kansas measure would have dismantled the state’s impartial Supreme Court and made it subject to partisan elections, while a measure in Missouri would have made it next to impossible for voters to use the citizen-initiated ballot process to protect their rights with citizen-led ballot initiatives.
As the largest institutional player in the ballot measure space, the ACLU, ACLU Foundation, and our affiliates led coalitions that defeated these efforts, organizing hundreds of volunteers to go door to door to talk to their neighbors and spending millions of dollars to educate voters – proving once again that civil liberties voters are a force to be reckoned with. And the results in Kansas and Missouri are bellwethers for what is to come this November, when voters will decide critical down-ballot races and ballot measures affecting abortion access, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, fair courts, and democracy protections.
Protecting Kansas’s Supreme Court – and Reproductive Freedom, LGBTQ+ Rights, and More Civil Liberties for Future Generations
Four years ago, Kansans rejected a ballot measure designed to ban abortion. This election, they again rejected an extremist agenda – this time to dismantle what abortion opponents see as their only obstacle to banning abortion in the state: the Kansas Supreme Court.
Kansas’s Supreme Court has upheld the state’s constitution and in so doing protected Kansans’ reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights, and other civil liberties. It is no surprise that politicians set their sights on changing it in order to advance their ideological agenda. In fact, immediately after the anti-abortion measure was defeated in 2022, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said that politicians needed to “slowly and quietly” replace the Kansas Supreme Court so that they could impose their agenda over the will of the people.
To do this, they proposed a ballot measure that would replace Kansas’s impartial judicial selection process with partisan elections, which would have turned their justices into politicians for sale. They put it on the ballot in August because they hoped a lower turnout election would help them win. But on Tuesday, Kansas voters resoundingly defeated the measure, protecting civil liberties for future generations. Kansas United for Impartial Courts (KUIC) – a broad coalition of civil liberties, health care, labor, and education groups chaired by the ACLU of Kansas’s executive director, Micah Kubic – played a critical role in educating voters on the stakes.
Stopping a Blatant Power Grab and Defending Ballot Referendums in Missouri
Missourians passed a citizen-led ballot measure in 2024 which restored and protected abortion rights in the state constitution. In response to this and other citizen-led efforts, the legislature put a measure on the August 2026 primary ballot that attempted to make similar citizen-led efforts virtually impossible to pass. This was a transparent effort to keep Missourians from making direct change in their state – and voters saw right through it, overwhelmingly defeating the measure. The ACLU of Missouri was a key player in the coalition, Protect Majority Rule Missouri, to stop this measure from diluting the power of the people.
The fight for our civil liberties is far from over in Missouri. To protect abortion access, voters will need to turn out again in November. These same anti-abortion politicians have placed a second measure on the general election ballot – seeking to subvert the will of the people by overturning the 2024 Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment and enshrining a near total abortion ban in the state’s constitution. The measure would also ban gender affirming care for minors. Already, the ACLU, ACLU Foundation, and the ACLU of Missouri are mobilizing to ensure Missourians are ready to turn out and Stop the Ban.
How the ACLU and its Partners Took on These Threats – and Won
In both Kansas and Missouri, the ACLU and ACLU Foundation provided critical support that helped these campaigns reach and turn out voters. ACLU affiliates and the coalitions they led trained hundreds of volunteers, showing the power of grassroots organizing to energize the electorate.
Throughout its campaign, hundreds of volunteers for Kansas United for Impartial Courts held 120 voter events, knocked 60,000 doors, and made 215,000 calls to speak directly with voters about the stakes. These efforts reached every corner of the state, from Kansas city to rural west Kansas. Thousands of grassroots donors contributed to the campaign and raised its momentum.
Together, the ACLU, ACLU Foundation, and ACLU of Kansas were the largest financial supporters of the No campaign, investing a combined $4.575 million to support a robust voter education program. The result is clear: from Kansas City to rural west Kansas, voters turned out and rejected the latest extremist power grab.
And in Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri supported Protect Majority Rule with significant contributions and a strong organizing program, reaching thousands of voters in the process.
What’s Coming Next
The results in Kansas and Missouri signal that when our democracy is under attack, voters will show up to protect it. But the fight is not over. That is why the ACLU and ACLU Voter Education Fund are focusing their largest ever midterm electoral program – $25.5 million – where others are not: helping voters understand the stakes in down-ballot races that could determine whether constitutional rights are protected in practice.
Ballot measure priorities for the fall include a citizen-initiated Montana ballot measure that would protect Montana’s nonpartisan judicial elections. Like in Kansas, Montana politicians disagree with the state Supreme Court’s recent rulings on abortion rights, LGBTQ+ freedom, and other civil liberties – and they’ve repeatedly attempted to tilt the court in favor of their extreme agenda. Missourians will fight to protect the recent win voters secured when they approved constitutional protections for abortion in 2024. And Virginians will vote on a measure to protect reproductive freedom.
At the same time, the ACLU, ACLU Voter Education Fund, and our affiliates will work to ensure voters know candidates’ positions on abortion and voting rights so they can make informed decisions at the ballot box in key state supreme court races in Michigan, Montana, and North Carolina; state legislative races in Georgia, Michigan, Montana, and North Carolina; and secretary of state races in Arizona and Nevada.
In a time of unprecedented attacks on our democracy, the ACLU is committed to using every tool we have to make sure that the people are heard, that our will is respected, and that our civil liberties thrive.