Voter Suppression Still a Priority for Missouri GOP

The Star breaks down the Republican efforts to create unnecessary hurdles for voting in Missouri, drafted for the purposes of skewing elections in their favor:

Missouri is working hard to join Kansas and the other states that seek to undercut voting rights by requiring photo identifications at the polls.

A final vote in the House and a Senate vote to clean up a minor detail are all that is needed to put the issue on the ballot. Having had a similar law declared unconstitutional, lawmakers want voters to enshrine their wrong thinking by passing a constitutional amendment.

The arguments are well established. Proponents say official photo IDs are needed to prevent voter fraud. But verifiable instances of voter fraud are rare.

Meanwhile, the restrictions would make voting much harder for hundreds of elderly and disabled Missourians, not to mention students and legal immigrants.

Among other problems, the bill under consideration confers undue authority on election judges to determine whether the signature on an ID card matches a would-be voter’s signature at the polls.

The bill calls for advance voting, which would be a positive step. But advance voting would be subject to the legislature and governor finding money to get it started — an iffy proposition in these austere times. The faint hope of more convenient voting would be vastly outweighed by the obstacles this bill presents.