Photo voter ID arguments renewed

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was changed at 10:45 a.m. Feb. 2 to correct Rep. Rizzo's current role in the Missouri House.

In August 2010, current Missouri House Minority Whip John J. Rizzo, D-Kansas City, won his primary election by one vote.

But, in June 2013, his uncle and aunt pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court to voter fraud, admitting - though they lived in Gladstone - they illegally claimed a Kansas City address so they could vote for Rizzo.

The Kansas City Star reported the uncle, John Moretina, also pleaded guilty to a federal charge of voter fraud in connection with the same election.

Those illegal votes, Clay County resident Paul Evans told a state Senate committee Monday afternoon, are reason enough for Missouri to require voters to show a specified picture ID before they can cast a vote.

He testified in favor of a House-passed proposed constitutional amendment to allow lawmakers to require voters to have specific kinds of photo IDs and for the proposed law that would put the requirements in place if Missouri voters adopt the proposed amendment.

The Senate's Financial and Governmental Organizations and Elections Committee last week endorsed Sen. Will Kraus' nearly identical amendment and enabling legislation proposals.

"This is not a trivial issue," Evans told the committee Monday. "We have had voter fraud, and this bill certainly would help address that issue."

As he has for the past several years, John Scott - representing Secretary of State Jason Kander - said lawmakers should reject the proposals.

"The secretary of state's office can't support any legislation that would disenfranchise a single eligible Missouri voter," he testified.

"The committee is being asked to weaken our existing voter-rights provisions in the Constitution, in order to pave the way for, arguably, the most strict form of photo ID legislation in the nation."

Missouri's Constitution says: "All citizens of the United States ... over the age of eighteen who are residents of this state and of the political subdivision in which they offer to vote are entitled to vote at all elections by the people ..."

The proposed amendment would add language to the Constitution without removing the "entitlement" language, and the proposed legislation would allow voters without the required ID to cast a "provisional" ballot that won't be counted until the voter provides the required identification within three days or, in some cases, if the election officials can match the voter's signature on election day with the signature when the voter registered.

Scott argued the proposed changes puts at risk the votes of now-eligible voters, "many of whom have been voting for years or decades."

But, Evans told the committee: "Nobody is denying anybody the right to vote. ...

"This has been a myth that liberals have started, that we are denying people a right to vote, and I am fed up to here!"

Jay Hardenbrook, testifying for the AARP, told lawmakers: "The harm caused by this bill is so much greater than the imagined good that it could potentially do."

Evans countered he had to show a photo ID at his grandson's school in order to go into the building with him, adding: "Photo IDs are readily available to non-drivers. And if you're a driver, you've got a photo ID."

But Hardenbrook said: "We have ... a significant number of members who do not have IDs on the approved list."

Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, told Hardenbrook the "AARP needs to get with the times."

She later told the News Tribune: "We have to use a photo ID to do anything we want to do, like go to the doctor or rent a movie. ...

"Why don't we help those people who don't have one, get one?"

Rep. Justin Alferman, R-Hermann, told the committee his House-passed bill includes "safeguards ... to make sure that the state pays for 100 percent of the costs to obtain an ID if you do not currently have one."

His bill has a $17 million fiscal note over three years, "but that's under the assumption there's 253,496 registered voters who do not have a current ID."

Alferman and Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, both said that number is too high.

Scott said the secretary of state's office estimate of about 220,000 voters impacted by the proposals "is accurate."

Senate Floor Leader Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said they haven't scheduled a time for floor debate on the issues yet.

"I assume it will be sooner rather than later," he said. "I think there are strong passions on both sides of the issue - so it likely will be something that will take some time" to debate.