Judge overturns voter ID law
Published Sept. 15, 2006
A judge overturned Missouri's voter identification law on Thursday, which required voters to provide photo identification at the polls to vote.
The judge in Cole County Circuit Court ruled that the law infringes on the voting rights of Missourians.
"It constitutes an undue burden on the right to vote that is not narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest, in violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses in Article I, Sections 10 and 2 respectively of the Missouri Constitution," Judge Richard Callahan wrote in his opinion.
Callahan wrote that the law placed an undue burden on the state's poor and elderly. The burden disenfranchised too many eligible voters to make it justifiable.
"The photo ID burden placed on the voter may seem minor or inconsequential to mainstream society for whom automobiles, driver licenses and even passports are a natural part of everyday life," Callahan wrote. "However, for the elderly, the poor, the undereducated and the otherwise disadvantaged, the burden can be great if not insurmountable, and it is those very people outside the mainstream of society who are least equipped to bear the costs or navigate the many bureaucracies necessary to obtain the required documentation."
Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, said arguments over the constitutionality of the law started as a legislative debate.
"We had argued on the floor many times that we thought it would be unconstitutional," Baker said. "We thought it would infringe on rights of voters and make it harder to vote."
Baker said the injunction was for the voter ID portion of the legislation only. She said other parts of the bill will still go into effect, such as the abolishment of straight ticket voting. She said she didn't think proponents of the bill had ever proven that it would prevent fraud at the polls.
Rep. Ed Robb, R-Columbia, pushed for a voter identification bill during the last legislative session and thinks the ruling overturned a good law.
"I think that the ruling is a mistake," Robb said. "I thought it was a very good law. Very reasonable. It simply requires voters to prove that they are who they say they are when they go to vote."
County Clerk Wendy Noren, who oversees voting in Columbia and the rest of Boone County, said she agrees with the judge's ruling.
"I'm very thrilled that the judge did that," Noren said. "I just feel there were so many people in this community that would have been affected, if not in this election, then in the next one."
Noren said she expects an appeal to be filed as early as today and that she hopes the Missouri Supreme Court acts quickly on the case.
"People need to know what they're going to have to do to vote in November," she said.
