JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — After two years of litigation and courtroom wrangling, a Cole County judge is set to make a decision on a Republican-led “voter integrity” law that requires a government-issued photo ID to cast a vote.

The outcome of the case, which also focuses on GOP efforts to restrict voter registration and absentee voter outreach, will not affect Missouri voters when they go to the polls for the Nov. 5 general election.

Rather, Circuit Judge Jon Beetem said he wants final proposed orders filed by mid-November before he makes a ruling.

Attorneys representing the Missouri League of Women Voters and the NAACP offered Beetem a laundry list of reasons to invalidate the 2022 law approved as part of a Republican reaction to former President Donald Trump falsely alleging he won the 2020 election.

“The perception of fraud does not justify the law,” said attorney Gillian Wilcox.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Donohue, representing Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, did not outline examples of fraud that the law would have stopped. But he said it could prevent people with “ulterior motives” from voting illegally.

“This law is low-cost deterrence,” Donohue said.

Under the photo ID provision, people without a government-issued ID can cast provisional ballots to be counted if they return later that day with a photo ID or if election officials verify their signatures. The law requires the state to provide a free photo identification card to those lacking one to vote.

While the photo ID provision remains intact for the upcoming election, Beetem put other parts of the law temporarily on hold in 2022, saying the provisions were unconstitutional because they limit free speech. He also ruled the state could not adequately explain how the law would address alleged fraud.

The GOP-backed rules banned paid solicitation of voter registration applications and a requirement that volunteers who attempt to sign up more than 10 voters must register with the state.

Another provision said volunteer solicitors must be Missouri voters. A fourth provision barred people from soliciting “a voter into obtaining an absentee ballot application.”

“This is a clear, clean statute,” Donohue said.

Beetem has signaled he is amenable to the groups trying to torpedo the rules.

In issuing a temporary hold, Beetem wrote that the organizations had been affected by the law.

“Plaintiffs are injured both because the requirement reduces the pool of potential volunteers who can carry their pro-voter message and because it requires them to dedicate additional resources toward compliance,” the judge wrote.

Assistant Attorney General Jason Lewis said the opponents have not shown how they are injured by the law.

“Fear of prosecution is not harm,” Lewis said.

There are 36 states that request or require identification to vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

(c)2024 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.