In 2006, Missouri courts recognized that requiring voters to provide photo identification before they can vote violates the state’s constitution.
The court’s message clear: A law like this would create barriers at the polls for some senior citizens, college students, poor people and some people with disabilities.
Why? Because they make up the nearly 230,000 voters in our state who do not possess driver’s licenses, one of the easiest and most-often used forms of photo identification.
The measure is back, and in our view it does more to disenfranchise voters than it does to protect them. The Missouri House on Wednesday approved legislation that would require voters to show government-issued photo ID before they could cast a ballot. The House version of the legislation also allows voters to cast ballots before Election Day in statewide elections. The House passed the legislation 99-52 Wednesday, returning it to the Senate.
In order to get around the constitutional question, the measure is also linked to a proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize voter ID and advanced voting laws. That constitutional amendment would appear on the 2012 statewide ballot, if it receives final approval from lawmakers before their session ends May 13.
If those supporting voter ID were able to produce an example of voter fraud in Missouri, then we might agree that there’s reason to adopt the law and go to the lengths and expense to hold an election and change our constitution.
Do our voting rolls need to be updated so as to avoid voting irregularities? Absolutely. But that has nothing to do with producing a photo before you can vote.
We would urge Missouri senators to turn down this bill, keeping in mind whom it really affects — their constituents.
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