Intimidation Strategies and the Abortion Ballot Measure in Missouri

"Decline to sign" and other nonsense meant to confuse, unnerve, and terrorize volunteers gathering signatures

This is a story of what happened in Arnold, Missouri on Saturday, April 20, 2024.

Arnold is a bedroom community in Jefferson County less than 20 miles from St Louis. A town of about 20,000 people with a small town feel and mostly regressive politics. But, like I will always remind you — that’s not the story. The story is the folks standing up for their neighbors and their rights in a state whose lawmakers are using techniques found in fascist countries.

Anti-choice State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman makes a call outside of a public library in Arnold, Missouri while volunteers gather signatures to put abortion on the ballot.

This is a story of abortion rights in a state that has banned abortion. But, first… what happened to Missouri?

My state was known as the bellwether state. It looks like a microcosm of the country's political makeup; Missouri has its two big cities, reliably voting for the liberal consensus, located on the outermost boundaries of the state — much like the American coasts. St. Louis and Kansas City look like they are trying to flee the state, though, barely in our state border, where the GOP-dominates the north, middle, and southern spaces.

The Missouri bellwether was a political phenomenon that meant that the state of Missouri voted for the winner in all but one U.S. presidential election from 1904 to 2008…I bet you can figure out what happened in 2008. Obama. A Black man won the Presidency and he did not carry Missouri.

But, even more than Obama, the Missouri GOP had won a supermajority in the House in 2002 and they haven’t lost that supermajority in 22 years. In fact. they hold a trifecta with a GOP-dominated House, Senate, and a Republican Governor. We have been slipping for two decades with our state outcomes for everything from schools to roads to healthcare falling and our rate of gun violence climbing. In a recent study that Gov Mike Parson happily quoted, “Missouri is ranked 4th for potential.”

I guess when you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. It’s all “potential” at this point.

But, back to Arnold. One of the “architects” of the Missouri abortion ban is State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman. She is notorious in the state for her anti-woman stances and bills. She even filed a bill to restrict the travel of pregnant women in our state with a bounty for Missourians to turn in their neighbors — it was never given a hearing. She did author the abortion ban, though, and below you can see her tweet bragging about passing a draconian bill that did not even include exemptions for rape or incest.

She even had the gall to add the hashtags, #WeAreComingForYou and #StartSweating. Who exactly are they coming for? Child rape victims? Who are they making sweat? Moms who have three kids at home and can’t possibly afford a fourth?

Missouri GOP lawmakers Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Nick Schroer on the right, and Adam Schnelting in the back, celebrating after passage of the Missouri abortion ban.

Senator Coleman announced her plan to run for Congress in MO3 this year, but recently decided to run for Secretary of State, and let me tell you why that is so dangerous for the people of Missouri: She is a proven fan of voter intimidation and the SOS position has everything to do with voting rights.

Coleman has been tweeting out disinformation, and showed up to an event where folks were gathering signatures to put abortion on the ballot in November. She and other GOP lawmakers understand that Missourians will likely vote to reinstate abortion rights if volunteers can get enough signatures to put it on the ballot. Now, lawmakers like Sen Coleman are employing the strategies of fascists to keep Missourians from signing: intimidation, disinformation, and scare tactics.

Sen Coleman tweeted on April 12, “Stop letting out of state people tell Missourians what to do. They want your name, address and signature. Don't share and put yourself at risk for identity theft. #declineToSign.”

Coleman has implied on several occasions that “out of state” interests want to gather signatures and that by signing, folks are at risk of identity theft. There is absolutely no proof of this happening, and all of the volunteers I’ve met gathering signatures were Missourians. I am one myself. Coleman isn’t being truthful, but more than that, the intimidation that follows her needs to be addressed.

A volunteer from the Arnold event posted this photo and the caption.

The abortion ballot signing event in Arnold was staffed by four volunteers and was set to run from 10-2 at the public library. All four volunteers were constituents of Senator Coleman and one told me the Senator showed up at the event right around 10am. The volunteers were set-up in the parking lot and had signs up directing voters to their location.

Sen Coleman was having a hard time manning all four volunteers and became frustrated when she couldn’t try to talk her own community members out of signing the petition. Coleman was reported to have raised her voice over at least one of the volunteers and directed signers that the petition is “not like Roe” and that there was “no alternative if a doctor commits malpractice.” She also reminded signers that she was a “constitutional lawyer” as she flagged down cars in the parking lot.

A volunteer said that Sen Coleman would flat out tell her constituents, “Do not sign the petition” ordering them not to sign.

Quickly after Sen Coleman arrived, a library staffer came out and told the signature gatherers that they must remove their signs and could only stand on the sidewalk. The volunteers did as instructed. Later, during the signing event, a volunteer did get off the sidewalk to approach a voter who wanted to sign the petition and Sen Coleman followed her into the parking lot.

The police were called for the incident and three cruisers eventually responded. A library employee told a volunteer that she needed to leave because she didn’t follow the rules and the volunteer responded by saying that Sen Coleman should be forced to leave as well. By the time police arrived, both the volunteer and Coleman were back on the sidewalk. Neither were forced to leave the event.

The Arnold event did garner 143 signatures for the petition. It also shed light on the brazen attempt to intimidate volunteers and signers in Missouri — I am writing this post so that I can get the word out.

This is the story of just one event. From the beginning of the process, volunteers have been threatened. The “Missouri Right to Life” organization set up a snitch line in the very first days of the petition trying to find signing events to send out their own folks to harass and intimidate volunteers.

From day one, we have been up against our own lawmakers in gathering signatures.

As one of the Arnold volunteers told me, “What I found most disturbing is why is Sen Coleman opposed to Missourians gathering signatures to put a measure on the ballot? Why is she opposed to her constituents voting on a Constitutional amendment? Why was she so intrusive and verbally aggressive to volunteers and voters? And, why was she badgering her own voters making it hard for them to even read the petition, much less sign it?”

I wonder the same things, but I am not the least bit surprised. I am only stunned that Senator Coleman was brazen enough to intimidate her own voters in public — we already know what goes on behind the scenes.

It’s just another day in Missouri.

~Jess