COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A law requiring Missouri voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote regularly will remain in effect after a lower court judge ruled constitutional Tuesday.
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem’s decision upholds the law, which was made possible by a voter-approved 2016 constitutional amendment that allowed lawmakers to establish photo ID requirements.
“To maintain a secure voting system, it only makes sense that a photo ID is essential,” Missouri Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said in a statement praising the ruling.
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Proponents of voter photo ID, like Ashcroft, say the practice prevents voter fraud and increases public confidence in election results. Voting rights advocates say obtaining the data needed to obtain proper photo identification can be a challenge, especially for older voters and people with disabilities.
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 36 states require or require ID to vote, with at least 21 requiring photo ID.
Under Missouri law, people without a government-issued photo ID can cast provisional ballots to be counted if they return later that day with a photo ID or if election officials verify their signatures.
The law also requires the state to provide a free photo ID to those who do not have one to vote.
The NAACP and the League of Women Voters in Missouri, along with two individual voters, filed a lawsuit in 2022 to overturn the law. They argued that some voters faced significant barriers to obtaining current and accurate government-issued photo IDs and were concerned that casting a provisional ballot would put them at greater risk of having their votes not counted.
Beetem initially dismissed the lawsuit, finding that neither of the two individual voters “alleged a specific, concrete, non-speculative injury or legally protectable interest in challenging the photo ID requirement.”
The Missouri ACLU and Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, which sued on behalf of the plaintiffs, in response added another voter to the lawsuit and again asked Beetem to find the voter ID requirement unconstitutional.
Beetem noted in his Tuesday ruling that all individual plaintiffs have successfully voted since the law took effect.
“Their claim that their provisional ballots may be rejected is purely speculative,” Beetem wrote. “Additionally, the evidence at trial confirms that rejection rates for provisional ballots are low, and that rates specifically for signature mismatches are extremely low.”
He concluded that the photo ID law “protects the fundamental right to vote by deterring hard-to-detect forms of voter fraud.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they will appeal Beetem’s ruling.
“The League believes the state should make it easier, not harder, for Missourians to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” Marilyn McLeod, president of the Missouri League of Women Voters, said in a statement. “There is no evidence of voter impersonation in Missouri, so these restrictions do not make our elections safer or more secure.”
The 2022 law also provides for in-person voting for any reason two weeks before the election, a compromise negotiated by Senate Democrats.
