The Missouri Supreme Court is deciding whether voters without a photo ID must sign a statement at the polls swearing they are who they say they are.
The state is challenging Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan calling the language contradictory and misleading and ruling last year to get rid of the requirement. In Thursday’s hearing, Assistant Missouri Attorney General D. John Sauer said the court should let the Secretary of State change the writing, instead of scrapping the affidavit altogether.
“There was no evidence at trial of any individual voter who claimed that they were confused by the option 2 affidavit or found it contradictory,” said Sauer.
Attorney Mark Elias, for the left-leaning voter advocacy organization called Priorities USA, said expert testimony in the trial confirmed that voters would need a graduate-level degree to understand the language.
“The Secretary of State promulgated this affidavit because this is what’s in the statute,” he says. “There is no affidavit the Secretary of State would be able to write under its limited grant authority that would not suffer the same problems.”
The court could rule at any time.
