Mo. legislature reviews voter ID bill

The proposed constitutional amendment faces charges of voter suppression.

By Anthony Gotelli IV

Published March 5, 2009

Missouri could have new laws for identifying voters at polling places if a controversial bill passes in the legislature.

On Feb. 24, the House Elections Committee completed a hearing about a proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to require photo identification for voting.

The proposed bill, sponsored by Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, is designed to combat voter fraud by requiring government issued photo ID for voting, as opposed to existing laws that allow things such as bank statements and utility bills to vouch for citizen identity. Cox has proposed the bill in the House three times.

"Under the present law in Missouri, the only proof you have of who you are includes such things as a utility bill," Cox said. "Well, maybe utility bills used to be hard to duplicate, but with our modern technology we have today, I'll guarantee you I could make a pretty authentic looking utility bill with someone else's name on it."

Democrats, on the other hand, have pushed for bills that would expand suffrage.

Rep. Ed Wildberger, D-St. Joseph, has proposed a bill that would promote absentee balloting and Sen. Rita Days, D-St. Louis, has proposed a bill that would allow early voting.

Because of the fundamentally opposite directions the two parties seem to be headed on the issue of voter registration and identification, the process has been controversial.

The bill was originally introduced in the legislature as standard legislation two sessions ago and was passed before being shot down as unconstitutional by the Missouri Supreme Court. The court ruled there is no provision in the state constitution requiring photo identification to be presented for voting.

The bill then came into its current form as a proposed state constitutional amendment in order to eliminate existing constitutional roadblocks to its passage. The bill passed the House last session and died in the waning days of the legislative session as it struggled through the Senate.

The chief opponents of the bill have been Democratic legislators who represent large metropolitan areas, such as Days.

These are districts where some constituents might not have photo identification, which some argue causes voter suppression.

Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, who said he believes in less government regulation of voter registration procedures, said Republicans have worked to suppress certain groups of voters in the past. As an example, he cited the Help America Vote Act in the 2002 election, which required photo identification from voters at polling places nationwide.

"In 2002, the Republicans used the flawed 2000 election as cover for HAVA, whose real purpose was to force stringent new identification standards on the states in the hope that poor people would be unable or unwilling to produce identification and not vote," Kelly said.

In his bill, Cox has promised free government issued photo identification to all citizens of the state in order to provide those who cannot afford to vote the chance to do so.