Missouri: GOP pushes voter I.D. bill
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: With statewide elections nine months away, some Missouri Republicans are pushing a controversial bill requiring government-issued photo identification to cast a vote.
Michael Gibbons, Senate president pro tem and co-sponsor of the bill, says the aim is to have the law in place by the fall. He praised the measure as a way to curb potential fraud and improve voter confidence. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt also supports it, a spokesman said.
But Mary A. Ratliff, president of the Missouri NAACP, called the bill "just another attempt by Republicans to keep African-Americans and people of low and middle incomes off the rolls."
A hearing is slated Monday on the bill, which would move Missouri into the small, but growing, group of states mandating such a requirement. -- STLtoday - News - St. Louis City / County