Column:

Missouri Senate should pass early voting, voter ID

Passing new voter laws will get more people to the polls.

By Nate Kennedy

Published April 9, 2009

Last week, The Associated Press came out with a report about the battle in the Missouri Senate to pass early voting and the photo ID bill.

Both issues have come to a standstill because, as Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, said in the report, "The only way one is going through is with the other. The Republicans have figured out early voting is not good for them, and the Democrats have figured out that voter ID is not good for them."

He is essentially admitting that by implementing these two measures, the Democratic voting base will be hampered by photo IDs, and Republican candidates might lose because of increased turnout from early voting. More people voting = Republicans lose.

The problem with photo ID, according to a news release this week from Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, is that more than 200,000 Missourians would be disenfranchised by the bill, including 10,000 military voters and 15,000 disabled voters. Student IDs would also not count as a form of voter ID as they do now.

This issue is nothing new. In 2006, a version of the photo ID bill was passed, which requires Missourians to have a state-issued photo ID when voting. A class-action lawsuit was filed, and the law was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court two months before the 2006 election on the grounds that it constituted an encumbrance to vote.

Back then, I was the president of the MU College Democrats, and we had to wait to register students until the court case was settled or risk disenfranchising out-of-state students. That left us with only a month to register students. At the rate we registered students during that month, the lost time before the decision may have affected as many as 1,000 students' right to vote.

The photo ID bill is back because different versions of it were passed and upheld by courts in other states. Although it has been tinkered with to get around the encumbrance aspect, it still creates a hardship for certain people to vote. Democrats want this bill stopped because they want as many people to vote as possible, plain and simple.

Republicans' obstruction to the early voting bill is strictly political, though. When former Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, was secretary of state from 2001-2005, he also advocated for early voting, like Carnahan is now. The difference is that Carnahan is running for U.S. Senate next year, and the Republicans don't want to give her anything to campaign on.

Republicans also remember how President Barack Obama urged people to utilize early voting in the last weeks of his campaign. Because Republicans perceive early voting as an advantage for Democrats, this sound election policy supported by both parties and enacted in 35 states is in political purgatory in Missouri.

I have a solution I hope may lead to a compromise if anyone in Jefferson City is reading this: Pass early voting, photo ID and Election Day Registration this year.

Adding EDR to the bill would allow anyone to register and vote in the weeks preceding an election. Since the photo ID law will be in place, Republicans can sleep sound at night knowing there will be no "rampant voter impersonation fraud." The technology we have available could allow us to create a statewide voter database immediately accessible at the local level to check for duplicate registrations or fraud as well.

Nate Kennedy is the chairman of the Young Democrats of Missouri College Federation. He can be reached at nkennedy@themaneater.com.