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Missouri law requiring a photo ID to vote upheld by judge, throwing out NAACP lawsuit

St. Louis-area residents take to the polls during no-excuse absentee voting on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the St. Louis Public Library’s Buder Branch in St. Louis Hills.
Brian Munoz
/
St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis-area residents take to the polls during no-excuse absentee voting on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the St. Louis Public Library’s Buder Branch in St. Louis Hills.

Missouri lawmakers passed legislation in 2022 that established a photo ID requirement at the polls. The NAACP and voting rights group had sued, arguing that its intention was to disenfranchise large groups of people.

A Missouri state law requiring a photo ID to vote will remain intact.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled Monday that a lawsuit challenging the photo ID requirement lacks standing.

In his ruling, Beetem said the individual plaintiffs did not provide “sufficient evidence” that they are harmed by the law’s voter ID provisions.

He also said the organizational plaintiffs, which include the Missouri NAACP, “have not satisfied the test for organizational standing or harm to their proprietary interests.”

Beetem said even if the plaintiffs did have standing, lawmakers passed House Bill 1878 “in response to a 2016 Missouri constitutional amendment authorizing voter ID.”

“And the law is consistent with that constitutional provision,” Beetem said.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, state Attorney General Andrew Bailey said the ruling was a “huge win for election security.”

Missouri lawmakers passed a wide-ranging elections bill in 2022. Included in the law was the photo ID requirement. It also established two weeks of no excuse, in person absentee voting.

Beetem heard the case challenging the law in November 2023.

Copyright 2024 St. Louis Public Radio

Sarah Kellogg is St. Louis Public Radio’s Statehouse and Politics Reporter, taking on the position in August 2021. Sarah is from the St. Louis area and even served as a newsroom intern for St. Louis Public Radio back in 2015.
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