JEFFERSON CITY 鈥 Missouri driver鈥檚 licenses and state-issued IDs would include a mark designating citizenship status beginning in mid-2025 under a measure that won first-round approval in the Legislature鈥檚 lower chamber on Tuesday.
The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Dan Stacy, a Blue Springs Republican, advanced in the House on a party-line vote. One more procedural vote is needed before the measure moves to the Senate.
Stacy said that 鈥渆lection authorities in Missouri have no tools in their toolbox to easily verify U.S. citizenship and prevent noncitizens from voting.鈥 He later added the measure is meant to secure Missouri elections and that the secretary of state鈥檚 office said it would 鈥済ive us extreme election integrity.鈥
Some are willing to use vulnerable people for nefarious purposes, Stacy said.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 not a great stretch to think that misdirected human nature seeking power through political means would not stoop to force or coerce illegal immigrants to fill out a falsified voter registration card and use it to pad the voter roles and voter turnout,鈥 he said.
Democrats pushed back on Stacy鈥檚 proposal.
Rep. Bridget Walsh Moore, D-south 狐狸视频 County, said the measure is 鈥渁 waste of the people鈥檚 time.鈥
鈥淚f we鈥檙e worried about the efficiency and the accuracy of the secretary of state鈥檚 office, I would ask that we address the problem there,鈥 she said.
Rep. Robert Sauls, an Independence Democrat, said he was concerned the measure could block citizens from voting.
鈥淲e鈥檙e leading with fear and innuendo,鈥 said Rep. Barbara Phifer, D-Kirkwood. 鈥淰oting is safe. Voting is secure in Missouri. We do not have an issue with fraudulent voting.鈥
Phifer on Tuesday formally announced her run for secretary of state.
鈥淲e know what happens when you start putting those kind of identifying marks on ID cards,鈥 Phifer said. 鈥淭his is not Nazi Germany folks. We should not do it.鈥
But Rep. Darin Chappell, R-Rogersville, later rejected Phifer鈥檚 comparison:
鈥淲e鈥檙e not asking that anyone sew a Star of David onto their clothing. We鈥檙e not loading anyone up into cattle cars to be taken into concentration camps,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 implore everyone on the floor, enough with the Nazi comparisons.鈥
Chappell called election integrity 鈥渢he very cornerstone of our Republic.鈥
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, last March elected to pull Missouri out of the Electronic Information Registration Information Center, commonly called ERIC, which is designed to improve the accuracy of voting roles.
As a result of the move, Ashcroft鈥檚 office was the subject of a scathing report issued in January by Republican state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick. The report said the decision to leave ERIC will cause local election authorities to have less information to identify and correct inaccurate voter records because the office did not have a plan to replace the benefits received from membership in the coalition.
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