The Missouri House has passed two pieces of legislation to require voters to show government-approved photo identification at the polls.The first, House Joint Resolution 1, is a proposed constitutional amendment to allow for a photo ID law to be passed by the legislature. It would also have to be passed by Missouri voters. The second, House Bill 30, would be the implementing bill placing photo ID requirements in state law.
House Democrats and black caucus members sharply criticized the proposal on Wednesday, calling it racist and saying it would amount to a poll tax on people without a photo ID. Shamed Dogan of Ballwin, the only black Republican in the Missouri legislature, strongly disagreed during today’s final debate.
“There’s no truth to these allegations,” Dogan said, “to say that other members of this body are trying to pass legislation for some sort of insidious reasons, racially discriminatory reasons, it’s out of line (and) it’s really uncalled for.”
