JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri driver’s 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’s 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 “election authorities in Missouri have no tools in their toolbox to easily verify U.S. citizenship and prevent noncitizens from voting.†He later added the measure is meant to secure Missouri elections and that the secretary of state’s office said it would “give us extreme election integrity.â€
Some are willing to use vulnerable people for nefarious purposes, Stacy said.
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“It’s 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,†he said.
Democrats pushed back on Stacy’s proposal.
Rep. Bridget Walsh Moore, D-south St. Louis County, said the measure is “a waste of the people’s time.â€
“If we’re worried about the efficiency and the accuracy of the secretary of state’s office, I would ask that we address the problem there,†she said.
Rep. Robert Sauls, an Independence Democrat, said he was concerned the measure could block citizens from voting.
“We’re leading with fear and innuendo,†said Rep. Barbara Phifer, D-Kirkwood. “Voting is safe. Voting is secure in Missouri. We do not have an issue with fraudulent voting.â€
Phifer on Tuesday formally announced her run for secretary of state.
“We know what happens when you start putting those kind of identifying marks on ID cards,†Phifer said. “This is not Nazi Germany folks. We should not do it.â€
But Rep. Darin Chappell, R-Rogersville, later rejected Phifer’s comparison:
“We’re not asking that anyone sew a Star of David onto their clothing. We’re not loading anyone up into cattle cars to be taken into concentration camps,†he said. “I implore everyone on the floor, enough with the Nazi comparisons.â€
Chappell called election integrity “the very cornerstone of our Republic.â€
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, last March elected to pull ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ 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’s 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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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Major General Levon E. Cumpton discuss the plan to send roughly 200 Missouri National Guard troops to support Texas’ Operation Lone Star at the southern border. Video courtesy of the Governor's office, edited by Jenna Jones.
