Missouri on Wednesday revised its electoral rules by enacting a voter identification law similar to a law that blocked the state’s highest court two years ago and abolished its presidential primaries in favor of a caucus system.
The new law, signed by Governor Michael L. Parson at the state capitol in Jefferson City, requires voters to show photo ID when casting a regular or absentee vote. Those who do not have such documentation are required to fill out a provisional ballot paper which will remain segregated until they provide photo ID or their signature is matched with the signature kept on file by election officials.
The voter identification rule was the most recent enacted in a Republican-controlled state, reflecting the party’s continued distrust of common voting practices, including the use of voting machines. It will require the use of hand-marked paper ballots from 2023, with limited exceptions for certain touchscreen systems until the end of next year.
Other changes include banning the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots — a practice many Republicans criticized during the 2020 presidential election — and replacing Missouri’s presidential election, held in March in recent years, with a series of primaries.
The proposal came out of the legislature in the spring, where Republican sponsors have continued to cite unsubstantiated and unspecific claims about voter fraud—much as former President Donald J. Trump has done—as the impetus for the voter ID bill. voter.
The law will go into effect on August 28, in time for the November election, but only after Missouri holds its primary on August 2.
Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 that led to an earlier set of voter identification rules, but the state Supreme Court scrapped those rules in 2020. The rules had required voters without the required ID to fill out an affidavit or have preliminary ballots. until their identity could be validated.
The chairman of the League of Women Voters of Missouri told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch this month that he faces legal challenges against the new law, which, according to the group of voters of color and those young or older, could restrict the right to vote. take away.
While paper ballots are already overwhelmingly used in Missouri, Republicans have sought to curb the use of electronic voting devices across the country, spreading falsehoods that the devices had been tampered with during the 2020 presidential election.
The new law repealed provisions passed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that allowed for postal and absentee voting in the 2020 general election, but Republicans compromised with Democrats to allow two weeks of in-person voting without apologies to stand. However, those ballots must be submitted to a local election office. Military and foreign voters are still allowed to post their ballots.
The law also makes it illegal for local electoral authorities to accept private donations in most cases.