Tagged: voter ID

The Missouri House has begun debate on a bill that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls.

House leaders had intended to hold a first-round vote on the measure Monday, but it was delayed because of the large number of Democrats who spoke against the bill.  Joe Aull (D, Marshall) used former Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton (D) as an example of how he says some elderly citizens could be disenfranchised by the bill.  Aull says Skelton attempted to get a photo ID for himself after the 2006 voter ID law was passed, but he was turned down.

Legislation that would require Missouri voters to show photo identification at the polls has passed a State House committee.

Voters who don’t have a photo ID would be required to use provisional ballots, which would be counted once their identities are correctly verified.  It passed 7 to 3 on a straight party line vote, with every Republican on the House Elections Committee voting “yes” and every Democrat voting “no.”  The sponsor, House Speaker Pro-tem Shane Schoeller (R, Willard), says the bill shouldn’t be divisive.

The Speaker Pro-tem of the Missouri House, Shane Schoeller (R, Willard), says he’s going to sponsor a package of election-related bills during next year’s legislative session.

It will include a bill requiring that voter-approved laws cannot be overturned by a simple majority vote by lawmakers.

Take, for example, the state minimum wage hike, which 76 percent of Missouri voters approved five years ago.  Schoeller says under his bill, that law could only be overturned if more than 76 percent of House and Senate members voted to do so.