Despite deal, lawmakers predict voter ID fight to keep going

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers from both parties see the voter ID issue as far from settled, even as the Republican-controlled Legislature is poised to tighten the state's requirements after Democrats managed to stall a pair of proposals for about a month.

Senate Republicans passed a bill on a 24-8 party-line vote Tuesday that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls. A constitutional amendment that would allow that measure to be enacted still is awaiting a vote. Both proposals would go into effect only with voter approval.

Missouri Republicans have sought to establish a photo ID requirement to vote for a decade. The state Supreme Court struck down one measure in 2006, saying the cost to obtain the identification was an unconstitutional burden on voters. So this year, Republicans proposed the state would pay for voters' IDs. They also proposed changing the state constitution to allow lawmakers to set photo ID requirements for voting.

After Democrats dug in, Republicans agreed to allow people without a photo ID to cast a ballot if they sign a statement saying, under penalty of perjury, they don't have the required identification and can show some other form, such as a paycheck or utility bill.

Sen. Will Kraus, the Lee's Summit Republican who handled the bill in the Senate, said the final proposal isn't as strict as he would have liked, but the voter statements create a way for the state to collect more information on voter impersonation.

Democrats have said there is no evidence of voter impersonation. Kraus -- who also is running for secretary of state -- said he expects that after officials begin comparing the signed voter statements against drivers' license records, "bam ... we got proof now."

Despite the changes, most Democrats still oppose the proposals.

"The fact remains that extreme voter photo identification requirements are so unconstitutional that the legislature is trying to change the Missouri Constitution to allow it," said Secretary of State Jason Kander, a Democrat who also is running for U.S. Senate.

The proposal was amended "in a way that I've never seen a bill watered down before," said Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis. The bill now is voter ID in name only, she said, "so they're clearly going to come back. And it's going to be another battle ahead of us."

After the Senate, the proposals would go back to the House, where lawmakers passed versions of the measures earlier this year with enough votes to override a possible veto by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. The proposed constitutional amendment would bypass the governor and go on the ballot later this year; if voters reject the amendment, the photo ID requirement would not go into effect.

Rep. Justin Alferman, the Hermann Republican who sponsored the bill in the House, predicted voters will overwhelmingly approve the constitutional amendment, which would set the measure in place for the 2018 election. After that, he said, lawmakers could re-evaluate how the system is working.

"This is not an issue that's going to go away," he said.

If the measure becomes law, Missouri would join 17 other states that require a photo ID to vote, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.

The legislative session ends May 13.