Missouri could become the latest state to institute new rules requiring voters to show identification at the polls under a measure being considered by the state Senate. And after earlier versions were struck down by the state Supreme Court, Republicans believe they have fixed provisions to which the court objected. The new version of the law, which was subject to a hearing earlier this week in the state Senate, would allow voters without proper identification to receive new IDs without cost. Voters who can’t afford an identification and voters born before 1941 would be able to cast a provisional ballot under the new legislation. That the bill is originating in the Senate is significant, observers said, because the upper chamber has been the hurdle in recent years. The state House has passed voter identification legislation in each of the last seven years, but those bills have all died in the Senate.
“The fact that our Senate is moving first on [the bill] this year may be an indication that we might move this year,” said state House Speaker Tim Jones (R), a supporter of voter identification laws. “If the Senate is successful, it will move in the House.”
Republicans control both chambers of the Missouri legislature, but Democrats hope to stand in the bill’s way. Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) said about 150,000 registered voters don’t have identifications, and another 70,000 have identifications that have expired.
“As the state’s chief elections officer, it is my job to make sure that only eligible voters vote, but also that every eligible voter has the opportunity to vote,” Kander said in a statement earlier this week. “This proposed legislation could keep hundreds of thousands of current Missouri voters from voting, which is not only just wrong, but unconstitutional.”
Full Article: Missouri likely to pass voter ID bill this year.