Missouri advocates say new voter ID law is intended to suppress turnout — and it's working

The NAACP and the League of Women Voters are challenging Missouri's 2022 voter ID law, arguing it imposes unconstitutional burdens on the right to vote without actually achieving the stated goal of reducing fraud. Two previous attempts by Missouri Republicans to require voter IDs have been struck down by the courts.
Almost one out of every 10 voters who cast ballots in Missouri’s two largest jurisdictions during recent elections lacked the identification now required at polls in the state, an expert testified Monday at a trial over the voter ID requirement.

Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist from the University of Wisconsin, estimated that about 175,000 votes cast in St. Louis County – or 8.4% of the total – between 2018 and 2022 were cast by people who did not have a Missouri-issued drivers license, nondriver identification or a federally issued ID with their birth date. The numbers were a little higher in Jackson County, he said, and nearly double that in Boone County, home of the University of Missouri’s flagship campus.

Before the November 2022 election, acceptable identification at the polls included a voter registration card, a student identification card, a bank statement or utility bill or even an out-of-state drivers license if it had not expired.