I’m heading into the grocery store and someone with a clipboard approaches. 

“Hi,” the person says. “Are you a registered voter in Missouri?”

The same thing happens in front of the neighborhood bakery. And at public gatherings like parades. Outside the post office. Even on random street corners. 

I confirm that I am indeed registered to vote in Missouri. Next question: “Would you like to sign a petition to end the ban on abortions in Missouri?”

Oh, heck yes. I signed this particular petition weeks ago. I am grateful for the people who did the hard work to make my signature possible.

I have also been invited to sign a petition to legalize sport betting in Missouri. I passed on that one. But, considering the Missouri legislature’s, um, shortcomings, I can appreciate the frustration that led the gambling lobby to ask for my signature. 

As a person who generally votes for Democrats and favors issues that are deemed progressive, I am feeling increasingly voiceless in Missouri.

My vote for Joe Biden as U.S. president in November will be mostly symbolic; Missouri will almost surely go for Donald Trump in the anachronistic Electoral College, which ought to disappear but likely never will. 

I think some of the Democrats running for statewide office this year would make exceptional leaders, but their gutsy campaigns are long shots in this red state.

I appreciate the lively City Council races in Kansas City, which usually draw an eclectic group of candidates and allow for an actual discussion of issues. It grates on me that the people I elect won’t be able to choose a police chief or make big decisions about the Kansas City Police Department. That privilege goes to a board on which four of five members are appointed by the Missouri governor — currently a Republican far out of step with Kansas City.

All of which is to explain why I love initiative petitions and direct democracy. And I am eyeing with trepidation the legislature’s latest effort to further marginalize my voice.

Lawmakers, in a panic over the prospect that voters might overturn their abortion ban, are moving at what for them amounts to lightning speed on a constitutional amendment to make it harder to pass initiative petitions in Missouri. 

Right now a citizen-led initiative can pass with a simple majority of votes statewide. A Republican backed proposal that has already cleared the Senate would change that — it would still require 50-plus percent statewide approval, but also a majority vote in five of the state’s eight congressional districts.

The logic is diabolically simple. Republicans want to give less weight to the votes of people in the 1st and 5th congressional districts, around St. Louis and Kansas City, and more weight to the votes of people in more conservative parts of the state. 

“This to me is a very similar concept to the Electoral College,” Tim Jones, state director of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, told The Independent.

For once, I actually agree with this guy. And can I say again how much I loathe the Electoral College?

The Independent has calculated that if the latest measure finds its way into the state constitution, just 23% of voters could thwart an initiative petition. In other words, a majority of Missouri voters could vote to restore abortion rights, or raise the minimum wage, or legalize sports betting. But that wouldn’t matter if enough voters in certain congressional districts opposed those initiatives.

The legislature’s attempt to kneecap the initiative petition process comes with a stack of indignities and contradictions.

The bill under consideration would only make it harder to pass constitutional amendments proposed by citizens. If lawmakers want to change the constitution, they could put a measure on the ballot and would only need a statewide majority vote for passage.

This notion that the Missouri legislature thinks it alone should have the last word on big issues is the ultimate rub. Let’s see, the House speaker has serious ethical problems, members of the Senate frequently hurl insults and come close to blows, and despite being in session since January the full legislature has yet to pass a single bill.

And these folks want to be the deciders?

The Missouri legislature is so chronically dysfunctional it can’t even get bills passed for powerful special interests anymore. Hence the sports betting petition.

That, perversely, gives me reason to hope. Should legislation to change the initiative petition process make it to the ballot, we may witness a strange alliance of progressive, corporate and perhaps even conservative interests coming together to fight it.

I get it. Missouri is a deep red state and those of us who don’t like it must settle for now with the role of the principled opposition. 

But being in the minority is one thing. Being voiceless is another. All citizens of Missouri should question why a legislature so ostensibly opposed to tyranny is intent on silencing so many of us.