Missourians are about to vote on their own power to change the state constitution.Missouri, along with 26 other states and Washington, D.C., has a process by which voters can gather signatures and initiate amendments to the state constitution by putting a ballot measure to a vote. As it stands, if a citizen-led amendment wins a simple statewide majority—six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts—the initiative will pass.But Tuesday’s primary election might take that away.Amendment 4, placed on the ballot by Missouri Republicans, would require any citizen-led amendment to pass in all eight districts, rather than the traditional six. This means that any single district could tank an amendment, regardless of popular support in the rest of the state. No other state makes it that hard.“I view it as a politician’s power grab,” Franklin County resident Derek Schriewer told The Missouri Independent. “They are trying to take away a typical function that we have had for over 100 years for citizens to be able to hold politicians accountable.”Doug Kerr, chairman of the Knox County Republican Central Committee and a staunch supporter of Amendment 4, argued that GOP interests were not getting enough representation—despite the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.“Our voices are not being heard,” Kerr told The Missouri Independent. “We’re not just a democracy. We are a democratic republic, and the rights of the minority should at least be heard. And right now, they’re not.”Amendment 4 has powerful allies, and not just among Republican state representatives. It has also been endorsed by Missouri’s most salient agricultural lobby, the Missouri Farm Bureau, as well as the Missouri Right to Life PAC. Campaign spending, both for and against the measure, is through the roof, and Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is predicting the highest primary turnout among Missouri voters since 2004.In recent years, Missouri voters have relied on citizen-led amendments to expand Medicaid access, legalize recreational marijuana, approve sports betting, and enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.The irony of Amendment 4 is that it only cuts one way. Lawmakers aren’t limiting their own power to change the state constitution—they will still have the power to put constitutional amendments on the ballot. But if voters want to do the same thing, they’re out of luck.