Lawsuit details alleged scheme to sabotage referendum on Missouri congressional map

Protesters gather in the Missouri Capitol rotunda Sept. 10 in opposition to a gerrymandered congressional district map (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).

Opponents of a referendum on Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map are offering “huge sums of money” to signature gatherers in an effort to undermine the petition drive, according to accusations in a federal lawsuit.

Advanced Micro Targeting of Dallas, Texas, was hired by a PAC called People Not Politicians to help collect the signatures needed to put Missouri’s new congressional map on the 2026 ballot. In a lawsuit filed Nov. 11 in Missouri’s Western District U.S. Court, the company alleges four consulting firms are involved in an effort to pay signatures gatherers to abandon their work, turn over signatures and badmouth their employer.

The lawsuit says the defendants have “poached” 28 employees and illegally obtained proprietary information about workers and petition strategy.

U.S. District Judge Greg Kays on Monday denied the company’s request for a temporary restraining order, stating the company had not proved “irreparable harm” that could not be compensated later. In response, the Advanced Micro Targeting filed an amended complaint, elaborating on the issues the activities of the four defendants are causing for the signature effort.

The defendants, the lawsuit states, are engaged in “an intentional and malicious effort to interfere with AMT’s operations in Missouri…”

According to campaign finance reports, Advanced Micro Targeting had been paid $1.1 million through Sept. 30 to collect signatures for the referendum. The company previously worked in Missouri on the drives to put abortion legalization and an increased minimum wage on the November 2024 ballot.

It is the first time since the company was established in 2007 that it has taken competitors to court, said Billy Rogers, company founder and president

“This was so egregious,” Rogers said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

The Advanced Micro Targeting lawsuit bases its claims on federal law protecting trade secrets and common law protections against defamation. But some of the accusations, if true, could violate the Missouri Uniform Trade Secrets Act, while others may violate the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.

Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office did not respond to The Independent when asked for comment on the allegations. The only public mentions of Advanced Micro Targeting from Hanaway came in two posts on social media accusing the company of violating the law.

In one, she said her office was investigating the company for employing undocumented immigrants “in their efforts to undermine the will of the people’s elected representatives.”

In the other, Hanaway said she had asked Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to investigate whether the company was “creating an environment for exploitation and human trafficking to thrive.”

Hanaway’s office did not respond to questions about the source of her information or why she deemed it to be credible.

Rogers said no one from the attorney general’s office has contacted him or his company to discuss the accusations. Every person being paid by his company to collect signatures, he said, is a direct employee — and every employee is a legal worker checked through the federal E-verify system.

“If we hear from the attorney general’s office or any other government agency, they want to take a look at our employee records and talk to us about our process, we’d be glad to talk to them,” Rogers said. “We do it right. We follow the law.”

Hanaway’s posts are an attempt at intimidation, said Richard von Glahn, director of People Not Politicians. She should know that the company verifies that its workers are eligible for employment, he said.

“The fact that she doesn’t know that shows that she conducted zero investigation and just put out the tweet, which continues the effort by opponents of the referendum to try to confuse and mislead voters as to what’s going on,” he said.

Republicans muscled the gerrymandering plan past Democratic opposition during a September special session. Using the new map, Republicans hope to win seven of the state’s eight congressional seats by adding enough GOP votes to flip the 5th District, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City.

The lawsuit is a new layer of litigation related to the congressional map.

There are at least eight cases currently underway, not all of which will be completed before the Dec. 11 deadline to turn in petition signatures. The next court hearing is Tuesday in St. Louis, where a federal judge will hear arguments over the constitutionality of a referendum on congressional district plans.

The Advanced Micro Targeting lawsuit names as defendants Let the Voters Decide of Celebration, Florida, and Vortex Elite LLC, of Miami, Florida; Synergy Wise Solutions, which has no website that could be found and lists an address that is a Pakmail storefront in Tucson, Arizona; and Onest Marketing, which also does not have a website that could be found and lists an address in an apartment building on the ocean in Miami, Florida.

The defendants, according to the lawsuit, obtained a confidential list of employees that included productivity rankings.

“Defendants are offering the employees on this confidential list huge sums of money (some were offered up to $30,000) to resign their employment with AMT and provide ‘intelligence gathering’ services for defendants,” the lawsuit states.

Each person hired by the company signs an agreement not to work for a competitor for a year after leaving Advanced Micro Targeting and not to try to hire employees away from the company.

In a statement issued through a communications consultant, Let the Voters Decide called the case a “bogus lawsuit” and cited Hanaway’s social media posts as evidence of bad practices.

“We will defend our company aggressively against AMT’s absurd claims,” the company said. “And anyone who reports or reads these claims really ought to consider the source.”

Vortex Elite did not respond to an email seeking comment. There were no contacts found for the other two defendants and none have lawyers listed for their defense.

The petition drive needs about 110,000 signatures spread across six of the state’s eight congressional districts to force a referendum. In its most recent update, People Not Politicians said it has gathered more than 200,000 signatures.

Von Glahn said the campaign will stop issuing updates as the deadline approaches.

Most of the signature gatherers passing petitions are volunteers, von Glahn said. The efforts to divert signature gatherers from the task has been felt among volunteers as well, he said.

One volunteer in Columbia reported being offered $1,000 for a backpack of signed petition sheets, he said. Others have been approached by people seeking to sign for a relative or when they are not registered, both violations of state campaign law, he said.

“We’re going to continue together, even in the face of these clearly desperate attempts to keep this from reaching the ballot,” von Glahn said. “The interesting thing about all of the opposition tactics is they are not preparing to defend the map at the ballot. They are desperately seeking to keep it from going to a vote.”

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.