Legal News

Missouri, Perennial Swing State, to Consider Stricter Voter ID Laws

By Dan Slater

Last month, when the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter ID law — thought to be one of the stricter laws of its kind — legal commentators speculated that the decision would embolden advocates of voter ID laws, paving the way for even stricter ID laws, and, of course, more litigation.

It didn’t take long. This week, reports the NYT’s Ian Urbina, lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship — not merely a government-issued card — from anyone registering to vote. As usual, the arguments align thusly: supporters say such a law is necessary to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process, while critics say the voter ID law could lead to the disenfranchisement of legal residents, mostly poor people and minorities, who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.

According to the Times, in Arizona, the only state that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote, more than 38,000 voter registration applications have been thrown out since the state adopted the measure in 2004. More than 70 percent of those registrations reportedly came from people who stated under oath that they were born in the United States. (Missouri is a perennial swing-state in presidential elections.)

In most of the states that require identification, voters can use utility bills, paychecks, driver’s licenses or student or military ID cards to prove their identity. In the Democratic primary election last week in Indiana, several nuns were denied ballots because they lacked the required photo IDs.

“The requirements we have right now are totally inadequate,” said Missouri State Rep. Stanley Cox, a sponsor of the amendment. “You can present a utility bill, and that doesn’t prove anything. I could sit here with my nice photocopier and create a thousand utility bills with different names on them.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 12, 2008 (boomark / email).