Donald Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich – of all vile political corpses to rise in support of this most loathsome of presidential candidates – has been using his national platform to claim that the voting irregularities in St. Louis in the August 2 primary, which resulted in two election results being thrown out, prove the need for voter photo ID. Like so many claims made by Trump and his surrogates, this is not true. The absentee votes mishandled by the St. Louis election board were not cases of voter impersonation, which is what voter photo ID protects against. In fact, voter impersonation is almost unheard of, so it’s obvious that something else is going on with the voter photo ID restrictions that Republicans are pushing, via legislation and ballot initiatives, all over the country.
In Missouri, the latest attempt is Constitutional Amendment 6 on the November 8 ballot, which would require “valid government-issued photo identification” to vote in the state. Current Secretary of State Jason Kander – a Democrat running for U.S. Senate on November 8 against Republican incumbent U.S. Senator Roy Blunt – estimates that Amendment 6 would disenfranchise 220,000 voters in Missouri. College students, low-income people, the disabled and the very elderly are the people most likely to be without state-issued photo ID. All of these demographics trend Democratic as voters, which is why Republicans all over the nation have pushed voter photo ID proposals for years.
Voter photo ID is being presented as a solution where no problem exists. If passed with a simple majority, it would make it more difficult for some of our most vulnerable and transient citizens to vote, while doing nothing to prevent the types of voter fraud that do exist in Missouri, such as exploiting the absentee ballot privilege. We strongly recommend a vote of NO ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 6.
Should we raise the tax on cigarettes to fund early childhood education? Yes, of course – we have argued stridently for universal pre-K education and other early childhood education initiatives for many years, given how crucial the earliest years are in forming the minds and possibilities of our citizens. Should we vote yes on Constitutional Amendment 3, which appears, on the face of it, to do just that? No.
This exceptionally detailed and misleading initiative is opposed by major, credible organizations that one would expect to support an initiative that does exactly what Amendment 3 claims to do. The American Heart Association, American Lung Association in Missouri, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City and Tobacco-Free Missouri all should be expected to support higher taxes on cigarettes, which would be expected to decrease smoking and improve health outcomes. But they all oppose Amendment 3. Why? Because Amendment 3 was drafted by and is being funded by Big Tobacco for dubious purposes. RJR Tobacco Company has contributed or pledged nearly $8 million to pass its handcrafted amendment to our Constitution. The measure gives $9 million a year back to the tobacco industry just for collecting the tax. The measure bans public health agencies that receive funding from advocating for stronger laws against tobacco. It bans research into the harmful effects of smoking on children and prevents public safety agencies from enforcing tougher tobacco laws in the future.
The Missouri National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers Local 420, Missouri Retired Teachers Association and Public School Personnel, and Missouri Association of Rural Education should be expected to support increased funding for early education. But they all oppose Amendment 3. Why? Because Amendment 3 creates an unelected body that would make funding decisions for the public money collected through the tax increase and would weaken Missouri’s long-time ban on using public money to fund private religious schools.
Amendment 3 – an initiative presumably about decreasing smoking and increasing education funding – also includes completely off-topic and worrisome language regarding funding for STEM cell research and abortion services, which is why Missouri Cures and NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri both oppose it. There is no defensible reason why this language should appear in a measure that has nothing to do with STEM cell research or a woman’s right to choose abortion.
This is a complex, deceitful, Trojan Horse measure that its advocates are trying to push past voters in a ballot initiative that is not fully and fairly represented in the brief ballot language. We encourage Missouri legislators to increase tobacco taxes to provide funding for early childhood education in future transparent legislation that does not cater to the tobacco industry or infringe upon research and abortion rights. In the meantime, we strongly recommend a vote of NO ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 3.
