Amendment 1 will be appearing on the Nov. 6 ballot and has stirred controversy despite its claims to increase representation and take power away from partisan interests.

The initiative tackles multiple issues, including redistricting laws, campaign contributions, gifts from lobbyists, transparency in government records, political fundraising and former legislators being employed as lobbyists.

Some proponents have said it will clean up Missouri politics and others have said it will make things worse.

Clean Missouri is a coalition supporting the measure.

Clean Missouri Spokesperson Benjamin Singer said Amendment 1 is the product of petitioning citizens to get their ideas on the ballot.

Over 300,000 signatures from throughout the state, he said, helped support the “grassroots” effort over the course of more than a year.

He said the current way of doing things prioritizes those acting with agendas in the legislature.

“It’s not about Missouri voters; it’s about looking out for partisan and special interests,” Singer said.

Among the endorsers of the initiative, he said, are former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, state Sen. Rob Schaaf, Missouri Faith Voices, AARP, the League of Women Voices and the NAACP.

“Because these reforms are so strong and this full package of reforms is good nonpartisan policy, that’s why Amendment 1 has earned the support of reformers across the political spectrum,” Singer said.

He said the bill has major bipartisan support.

The office of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft publishes “fair ballot language” for each of the voting issues, with the intention of clarifying the topics addressed in the measure.

The secretary’s website states the measure would change how redistricting is done, placing the job of redrawing boundaries in the hands of a nonpartisan demographer instead of the bipartisan house and senate commissions. That demographer would draw up the lines and then submit the plans to the legislative commissions.

Singer said this will make maps more “fair and competitive,” requiring 70 percent approval from commissioners.

Former GOP auditor candidate Paul Curtman criticized the initiative, saying it would be impractical to draw maps that balanced the partisan populations in the state because it would not descriptively represent Missourians.

State Rep. Rick Francis, R-Perryville, spoke out in opposition to the measure in an editorial in the Southeast Missourian, in which he called Amendment 1 a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Francis has said it is an effort to break up the GOP majority in Jefferson City, Missouri, with backers like George Soros, Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club and NARAL Pro Choice.

Some Southeast students also have voiced their opinions.

Amendment 1 opponent and Southeast junior writing student Logan Mainord said the change would see “people as extensions of their political parties.”

“The current system is more aimed, and should be better aimed, toward districting to keep towns and cities intact, to keep together, instead of diluting communities of certain interests, such as minority communities, or, say, certain rural area representing one major interest otherwise ignored,” Mainord said.

Fifth-year multimedia journalism student Connor Akins said although he supports the amendment, it is not as strong as he would like, and he does have hesitations because the auditor who appoints the demographer is partisan.

Akins said Missouri is among only seven states which uses a commission when redistricting.

“While these commissions, in Missouri at least, must be made up of equal numbers of both parties, it takes 70 percent approval of commissioners to approve a map,” Akins said. “Meaning more often than not the drawing of lines has to be kicked over to the courts, where a special panel has to be convened, not to mention that the governor also has veto power over the maps.”

He said Arizona’s plan allowed for a more competitive map by requiring four commissioners to be chosen from a list by legislators, who then choose a fifth member of a different party from the others.

The Missouri Farm Bureau is opposing the initiative as well, stating in their official list of stances that rural voters representation would be hurt in the change and Amendment 1 would “make Missouri the most gerrymandered state in the nation.”

Gerrymandering is the political practice of redrawing the lines of voting districts by the partisan majority, so as to clump together populations that are more likely to support their candidates, according to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute.

This is what the proponents claim the amendment would prevent.

The Associated Press reports the Clean Missouri initiative made its way into appeals court in a lawsuit alleging the measure was unconstitutional because it addresses multiple subjects. A Cole County judge ruled that it did approach a single topic: ”regulating the Legislature to limit the influence of partisan or other special interests."

The amendment would reduce the amount of money that contributed to state senate candidates to $100 per election and to $500 state representatives.

While it prohibits former legislators from becoming lobbyists for two years, the measure would also limit lobbyist gifts to legislators to $5, and it keeps candidates from raising money on state property.

The initiative would address the Sunshine Law as well, hoping to further expand government transparency and open records.

Voters will have the opportunity to decide for themselves next month whether Amendment 1 is an effort to restrain or expand political interests’ power.