JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri House Republicans voted Thursday to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot later this year requiring photo ID at the polls, but not before Democrats bashed the proposal one last time.
The plan has drawn some of the most heated debate of the legislative session.
Opponents say the proposed requirement is a ploy to decrease turnout among Democratic-leaning voters. Supporters say it’s needed to ensure in-person voter impersonation fraud doesn’t take place.
“The sad part of this is that people in this body think it’s a joke,” said state Rep. Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City. “They think that when we push these buttons in front of us — the red and green buttons — it has no implications.
“Then we hear people say, ‘Well, you know, everybody has an ID, everybody has a bank account,’” he said. “Well, that’s ignorance, because that shows the fact that you don’t understand the difference between a privilege and a right. It’s a privilege to have an ID.”
Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander’s office estimates that there are 220,000 registered voters in the state who lack a photo ID. Kander is a Democrat.
Critics cite studies indicating that voter impersonation fraud — lying about who you are at the ballot box — is rare and not a problem worth solving. They argue that in states with strict voter ID laws, turnout among Democratic-leaning voters has decreased.
Justin Levitt, a researcher at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, counted only 31 credible cases nationwide of in-person voter fraud out of more than 1 billion ballots cast between 2000 and 2014.
A study out of the University of California, San Diego suggests that the strictest voter ID laws can reduce participation of strong liberals by up to 10.7 points compared with states without the laws. Participation among strong conservatives also drops, but only by 2.8 points, the researchers found.
Confusion over new rules has also led to problems. A study from the University of Houston and Rice University suggests that confusion over Texas’ law reduced turnout among Hispanics in the 2014 midterm elections.
“A lot of them haven’t taken the time to really research this,” Ellington said of supporters.
But supporters countered that compromise language from the Senate ensures that no one will actually be prevented from voting.
Under the language that would go into effect upon voter approval, voters without an ID will be able to sign a form saying that they don’t have an ID, are who they claim to be, and recognize that voter ID is the law of the land.
If they decline to sign the form, they could cast a provisional ballot; the vote would count if the person could later prove their identity.
The state would also pay for IDs and source documents needed to obtain them. If the state did not appropriate money in any given year, the requirements would not be in effect.
The language laying out how the requirement would be enforced still needs either Gov. Jay Nixon’s signature or a successful override in the Legislature if he vetoes the bill.
”The folks on the other side, I certainly understand and sympathize where they’re coming from, because they are coming at this issue from a civil rights perspective,” said state Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin.
”There’s no way I would be supporting this if it disenfranchised people who look like me — people who are my ancestors, people who are my relatives, people who are my best friends,” Dogan, who is black, said.
After Dogan spoke, the GOP majority voted to cut off debate and force a vote.
The sponsor of the resolution, state Rep. Tony Dugger, R-Hartville, said he had worked on voter ID ever since he joined the House eight years ago. He is leaving the body due to term limits.
”I can’t think of a better piece of legislation to end on,” he said, “and with that, I close.”
He received a standing ovation from GOP members. Democrats sat silent.
The legislation is House Bill 1631 and House Joint Resolution 53.
Jack Suntrup • 573-556-6184
@JackSuntrup on Twitter
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