House Minority Caucus
Jeff Harris, Minority Leader
Paul LeVota, Asst. Minority Leader
Connie Johnson, Minority Whip
Robin Wright-Jones, Caucus Chair
Terry Young, Caucus Secretary
Ed Wildberger, Asst. Caucus Chair
For Immediate Release:
May 4, 2006
For more information contact:
Rep. Jeff Harris at (573) 751-9753
House Republicans vote to disenfranchise many Missourians
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – House Republicans on Thursday voted to disenfranchise as many as
200,000 Missourians by approving legislation to require voters to produce photo identification on Election
Day in order to cast a ballot.
On a straight party-line vote of 94-65, the House approved Senate Bill 1014, the primary provision
of which requires voters to show a state or federally issued photo ID to vote. Starting with the November
general election, many voters without a photo ID would be forced to cast a provisional ballot that might
not be counted. As of November 2008, all such voters would be prohibited from casting a ballot.
“Some say that because you need a photo ID to cash a check, requiring an ID to vote is no big
deal,” Harris said. “The flaw in that argument is you don’t have a constitutional right to cash a check, but
you do have a constitutional right to vote. This is an unpatriotic and un-American bill that sets back
democracy in Missouri by generations.”
Among the bill’s many flaws, it violates Article VIII, Section 2 of the Missouri Constitution,
which unequivocally guarantees the right of registered voters to participate in all elections in the political
jurisdictions in which they live. The bill has no bearing on a voter’s ability to register but would bar that
voter, once registered, from casting a ballot without photo ID, rendering the measure unconstitutional.
As many as 200,000 Missouri voters currently don’t have a photo ID. This group is
disproportionately comprised of elderly, disabled and minority voters. Although supporters claim to be
addressing voter fraud, state Rep. John Bowman, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, noted they
offer no evidence that misrepresentation at the polls is a problem in Missouri.
“This bill creates roadblocks for people trying to exercise their right to vote,” said Bowman, D-St.
Louis. “There are many ways to improve the voting process, but it appears the goal here is to do the
opposite.”
The bill authorizes mobile units to provide nursing home residents with IDs if they are unable to
visit a driver’s license fee office for that purpose. However, the bill doesn’t ensure that there will be
sufficient mobile units to meet demand or require them to accommodate similarly affected voters who
don’t live in nursing homes. There is no funding in the state budget for fiscal year 2007, which begins July
1, 2006, to pay for the mobile units or to provide free IDs to those unable to afford them.
-more-
“This is going to be bad for rural Missourians,” said state Rep. Wayne Henke, D-Troy and
chairman of the Rural Democratic Caucus. “Many rural residents don’t live near a fee office, and I have
serious doubts these mobile units will bother serving voters in sparsely populated areas.”
The problems created by the bill will be compounded by a new state law that makes it harder for
Missourians to obtain a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID by requiring them to produce a birth
certificate or other documentation of lawful presence in the country. The law has caused problems for
untold numbers of Missourians, especially older residents, whose birth records have been lost, destroyed
or never existed. According to the Department of Health and Senior Services, there currently is a sixmonth backlog in processing birth certificate requests.
Because the bill would take effect slightly more than two months before the November election,
many voters will be unable to get a photo ID in time. State Rep. Margaret Donnelly offered an amendment
that would require the state to issue a photo voter ID to those whose requests for documentation aren’t
filled within 45 days. The amendment was modeled on a provision of Missouri’s concealed weapons law
that requires sheriffs to issue conceal-carry permits to applicants if their criminal background checks
aren’t completed within 45 days. Republicans defeated the amendment, 86-68.
“If we are going to ensure that people can carry concealed guns if the paperwork moves too
slowly, we certainly shouldn’t let bureaucratic hurdles prevent Missourians from exercising the right to
vote,” said Donnelly, D-St. Louis.
County clerks from around the state oppose the measure, saying it will drastically increase
taxpayer costs and create polling place confusion.
“This bill is a solution in search of a problem,” said state Rep. Wes Wagner of DeSoto and the
ranking Democrat on the House Elections Committee.
The measure also reduces the number of ballots that individual polling places in the St. Louis and
Kansas City areas must have available, increasing the likelihood of ballot shortages. The restriction on
ballot availability doesn’t apply to the rest of Missouri.
“This is insulting to the people of Missouri and breathtaking in its audacity,” said state Rep. John
Burnett, D-Kansas City. “If you’re going to steal votes, don’t do it literally by ensuring there aren’t
enough ballots.”
The Senate previously approved a version of the bill on a near party-line vote with Republicans in
support. The two chambers must work out differences between their respective versions before final
passage.
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