Contact: (CLAY)
STEVEN ENGELHARDT (314) 504-4029
(CLEAVER)
DANNY ROTERT (816) 842-4545

Washington, DC - Missouri congressmen Wm. Lacy Clay of St. Louis and Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, added their voices in support of a lawsuit filed yesterday in Cole County Circuit Court that would block the implementation of Missouri’s new photo ID voting law.  The lawsuit, which was filed by several elderly and disabled voters, alleges that the new law would impose undue hardships on seniors, women, minorities, the disabled and lower income voters who are less likely to have driver’s licenses.  It also challenges the constitutionality of the new law because voters who currently lack a government-issued photo ID would be forced to incur out of pocket expenses to obtain a birth certificate, in order to prove citizenship.

“This is nothing more than a 21st century poll tax,” said Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D) Missouri.  “The photo ID requirement is unconstitutional at its core.  It’s part of the Republican Party’s national efforts to use state legislatures to pre-rig elections across the country by excluding registered voters who are unlikely to support GOP candidates.  We are hopeful that the court will protect the constitutional rights of all Missouri citizens and stop this law before it takes effect.  In Congress, we just renewed the Voting Rights Act by an overwhelming bipartisan majority.  But sadly, in Missouri, the Republican legislature passed a law that turns the clock back.  This is about defending the constitution and I applaud the efforts to stop this assault on our most precious right.”

“In the United States of America we ought to be about encouraging more people to vote as opposed to enacting laws that discourage voters from exercising their fundamental right. Our nation, throughout its history, has constantly moved to include more people in the democratic process. We have included African-Americans, women and those 18 and older, always choosing to amend our Constitution to have more citizens involved in our nation’s future, not less,” said Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II (D) Missouri.

“Missouri’s voter ID law takes our State in a direction contrary to the lessons of our shared history,” said Cleaver, “It is a law whose sole intention is to disenfranchise and reduce the number of citizens allowed to vote. At a time when voter turnout and participation in our democracy is at an all-time low, Missouri has callously, and I believe unconstitutionally, chosen to compound the problem.”