Missouri Supreme Court Weighs Photo ID, Voter Registration Limits
The law’s requirement for photo identification was the subject of one case, while other limitations related to voter registration and outreach for absentee ballots were the focus of the second. In the photo ID case, the plaintiffs’ lawyers requested that the court reverse a previous decision that had maintained the requirement.
Whether the plaintiffs have the right to sue is a major point of contention in this case.
Judge Mary Russell asked Jason Orr, the plaintiff’s lawyer, to explain whether the parties could get government photo IDs and cast ballots.
The plaintiffs did cast ballots, according to Orr of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, but they claimed that the challenge they had obtaining the necessary identification was the legal problem.
“This court and other courts have actually held that the burden that courts consider is not the ability to vote,” Orr stated. “It’s the restriction of the right to vote, which may be a barrier to exercising that right.”
The state’s attorney general, Lou Capozzi, retorted that Missouri voters established the basis for the photo ID requirement when they approved a constitutional amendment that gave legislators the authority to pass such a law.
Capozzi said the amendment passed with 63% support even after groups like the NAACP argued the requirement was too burdensome.
According to Capozzi, “those groups made all the same policy and legal arguments that this court has heard today, including that obtaining a government-issued photo ID is too burdensome.” “But those arguments were rejected by the people.”
Additionally, Capozzi maintained that the plaintiffs lacked standing to file the lawsuit.
According to Capozzi, “appellants could not present the trial court with a single person actually unable to vote due to the law, even though they claim that many people will be unable to vote under HB1878.”
Chief Justice W. Brent Powell contested that argument, asking how the lower court’s decision could be upheld in the absence of any standing on the part of the plaintiffs.
Powell questioned, “The opposing counsel makes the argument that if there is no standing, how can we uphold the lower court’s decision that the bill is constitutional?”
Following the hearing, Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, stated that the state is once more defending laws that make it more difficult for people to cast ballots.
“It amazes me that you would suppress and criminalize the ability of individuals to ask or recommend that other citizens take part in the voting process,” Chapel said. “It’s befuddling. It’s startling and unexpected.
The requirement for a photo ID will not change if the Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s ruling in the first case.
The justices also heard a second case on Wednesday involving other portions of the same 2022 law that deal with voter outreach and registration.
Provisions that forbid paying employees to look for voter registration applications, mandate that registration agents be Missouri residents who are at least eighteen years old, and forbid attempts to solicit absentee ballot applications are in question.
Unlike the first case, the state is requesting that the Supreme Court reverse a circuit court decision that declared those clauses unconstitutional.
J. Michael Patton argued on behalf of the state that maintaining election fairness and order depends on the challenged sections.
According to Patton, “if elections are to be fair and honest and if some kind of order is to accompany the democratic process, then there must be substantial regulation of elections.” “The challenged statutes are essential to protecting democracy.”
According to Missouri’s ACLU’s Kristin Mulvey, the limitations are an infringement on fundamental political speech.
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