The secretary of state must post the sample petition online if the form is approved, take public comments for 15 days, and send a summary statement to the attorney general within 23 days; the attorney general must approve that statement within 10 days.
*116.334. Petition approval required, procedure to obtain petition title or summary statement — rejection or approval of petition, procedure — circulation of petition prior to approval, effect — signatures, deadline for filing. — 1. If the petition form is approved, the secretary of state shall make a copy of the sample petition available on the secretary of state's website. For a period of fifteen days after the petition is approved as to form, the secretary of state shall accept public comments regarding the proposed measure and provide copies of such comments upon request. Within twenty-three days of receipt of such approval, the secretary of state shall prepare and transmit to the attorney general a summary statement of the measure which shall be a concise statement not exceeding one hundred words. This statement shall be in the form of a question using language neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create prejudice either for or against the proposed measure. The attorney general shall within ten days approve the legal content and form of the proposed statement. 2. Signatures obtained prior to the date the official ballot title is certified by the secretary of state shall not be counted. Once the secretary of state certifies the official ballot title, signatures may be collected, even if the ballot title is subject to an action in court challenging the sufficiency and fairness of the ballot title. If a court orders a change that alters the content of the official ballot title, then all signatures gathered before such change occurred shall not be invalidated based upon the fact that one or more signatures were gathered prior to the alteration of the official ballot title, regardless of whether those signatures were gathered on petition pages that displayed what was previously the official ballot title as certified by the secretary of state. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit the invalidation of a signature for a reason otherwise allowed by this chapter. 3. Signatures for statutory initiative petitions shall be filed not later than six months prior to the general election during which the petition's ballot measure is submitted for a vote, and shall also be collected not earlier than the day after the day upon which the previous general election was held. (L. 1985 H.B. 543 § 2, A.L. 1997 S.B. 132, A.L. 2013 H.B. 117, A.L. 2025 S.B. 22) *Revisor's Note: This section was declared unconstitutional in Nicholson v. State of Missouri, et al. (see 2026 annotation below). (2022) Section prohibiting the circulation of referendum petitions before official ballot title is certified and affixed to petition violates right of referendum under article III, §§ 49, 52(a). No Bans on Choice v. Ashcroft, 638 S.W.3d 484 (Mo.banc). (2026) Provisions of S.B. 22 from 2025 declared unconstitutional as violating the original purpose requirement of Article III, § 21 of the Missouri Constitution. Finding the offending provisions cannot be severed, the Court declared S.B. 22 invalid in its entirety. Nicholson v. State of Missouri, et al., No. SC101308, January 23, 2026 (Mo.banc).