‘Very confident’ of success
By Meliqueica Meadows, Of the St. Louis American
Just one month after Governor Matt Blunt signed the Missouri Voter ID Bill into law, the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit on Monday calling for the new measure to be deemed unconstitutional.
Filed in Cole County Circuit Court, the suit says that the law is in direct violation of the Missouri Hancock Amendment, which was adopted in 1980 to prevent the imposition of costs on local governments without the provision of funds from the state.
Tony Rothert, legal director for ACLU-EM, said the group chose this approach for the suit “because it is the least complicated” and that the ACLU is “very confident” that its suit will succeed.
Sources in the state Democratic Party say that another suit will be filed late this week or early next week. This suit, with individuals as well as organizations as the plaintiffs, will challenge the law on the more complicated legal grounds of disenfranchisement.
Under the new provision, voters are required to show either a state or federal government-issued identification card at their polling place in order to cast a ballot. There are some 170,000 qualified Missouri voters currently without the proper identification required by the new law. Applications for a photo ID and the documents required to get one will add to the workload of county and local governmental agencies, but the law provides no corresponding funds to these agencies, according to critics of the bill.
“We do believe the law is unconstitutional under both the Missouri and U.S. Constitutions,” Rothert said.
“Our law in Missouri is very similar to the law in Georgia, and both a state and federal court have stopped it there so we’re very confident.”
If it stands, the new law would be in effect for the November election.