Union measure drove highest Missouri voter turnout in decade

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A ballot measure attempting to limit union powers helped drive Missouri’s largest voter turnout for a primary election in over a decade.

One-third of registered voters statewide cast ballots on Proposition A in last week’s election. That was the highest primary turnout since August 2004, when nearly 36 percent of voters cast ballots.

The measure seeking to outlaw mandatory union fees was defeated overwhelmingly. Proposition A received a combined total of almost 1.4 million votes, according to unofficial results. That exceeded the nearly 1.3 million votes cast for U.S. Senate candidates in the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian and Green Party primaries combined.

In 2004, the biggest vote-getter was a state constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. It received a total of 1.5 million votes and passed easily.