Judge rules Missouri voters must show photo ID, but knocks limits on registration drives

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri voters must continue to show photo ID at the polls, but a series of restrictions on voter registration drives cannot be enforced, under a pair of court decisions that ensures legal fights over the state’s elections will continue.

In twin rulings last week, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem upheld a 2022 state law requiring photo ID to vote, a victory for Republican lawmakers in a long-running effort to enforce and defend the requirements that stretches back years. But Beetem struck down other provisions of the law that limit who can solicit voter registration applications.

The decisions are important benchmarks in the legal process, allowing the appeals process to begin. However, they didn’t immediately change what election rules are in effect because Beetem had previously blocked the registration restrictions temporarily and the photo ID requirements were already in place.

The General Assembly approved the photo ID requirement and the voter registration restrictions as part of a sweeping bill – HB 1878 – that came amid lingering, baseless doubts over the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. It was also the culmination of a years-long push by Republicans to require photo ID after prior legal setbacks.

Missouri voters in 2016 approved a state constitutional amendment requiring photo ID to vote. The 2022 law implemented the requirement after the Missouri Supreme Court in 2020 overturned a previous photo ID law. Opponents sued, though the photo ID requirements had remained in effect during the legal challenge.

“The voter ID provisions of HB 1878 do not violate the fundamental right to vote or the equal protection clauses of the Missouri Constitution: on the contrary, stemming from a Constitutional amendment, they protect the fundamental right to vote by deterring difficult to detect forms of voter fraud,” Beetem wrote in his decision, dated Nov. 25.

Under the 2022 law, Missourians must use an ID issued by Missouri or the federal government in order to vote. If a voter does not have one, they can cast a provisional ballot. But for that ballot to count, the voter has to return to their polling place with the required ID or hope that the signature on their ballot matches the signature on file with the election authority.

Voting rights advocates have decried the legislation as an attempt to stifle voting rights. They have argued the voter ID requirements hurt people with disabilities, marginalized communities, seniors and students who don’t have the required forms of photo identification or means to get them.

But Beetem voiced far more concern about the voter registration provisions.

Those parts of the law ban groups from paying anyone to solicit voter registration applications, require unpaid individuals who solicit more than 10 applications to register with the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office and require anyone soliciting applications must be a registered Missouri voter. Additionally, the law also bans anyone from soliciting a voter to seek an absentee ballot.

The League of Women Voters of Missouri and the Missouri NAACP sued over the law. The restrictions were preliminarily blocked by Beetem in November 2022, but last week’s decision came after a bench trial this summer.

“Each makes it more difficult for non-partisan, non-profit civic organizations such as Plaintiffs to engage in voter outreach and activities they undertake to spread their pro-voter message and increase participation in elections,” Beetem wrote in a Nov. 27 decision.

“The Challenged Provisions did, and likely will if they are not permanently (enjoined), chill speech and advocacy related to voting and decrease participation in elections.”

Marilyn McLeod, president of the League of Women Voters of Missouri, said in a statement that the organization has worked since 1919 to educate and empower voters, but that the 2022 law criminalized some of its work.

“We are pleased that the court recognized that four restrictions in HB 1878 were unreasonable and violated our constitutional rights,” McLeod said.

The League of Women Voters of Missouri said it plans to appeal the photo ID decision, however.

A full appeals process could add months or even years to the case, as the lawsuit winds its way up to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Beetem first dismissed the lawsuit over the photo ID rules in October 2022, saying that the plaintiffs failed to show that the law’s photo ID requirement would be “unconstitutionally burdensome for every voter in Missouri.” However, Beetem’s ruling gave the plaintiffs the opportunity to file an amended complaint, which they did in November 2022.

“The League believes the state should be making it easier, not harder, for Missourians to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” McLeod said. “There’s no evidence of voter impersonation in Missouri, so these restrictions don’t make our elections any safer or more secure.”

Republicans hailed Beetem’s photo ID ruling as a significant victory. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who was elected to a full term in November, said in a social media post that “radical activists working to undermine our elections FAILED.”

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who will leave office in January, called voting the “foundation of our republic.”

“It is not only our right but also our responsibility,” Ashcroft said in a statement. “Rather than restrict, I believe HB 1878 makes it easier to vote but harder to cheat and makes Missouri a model for other states to follow.”

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The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed reporting