Judge Upholds Missouri’s Voter ID Requirements

In a win for the integrity of Missouri’s elections, a state judge tossed a leftist-backed lawsuit seeking to strike down the Show Me State’s voter ID requirements.

Authored by Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem, the Monday decision came in response to a lawsuit brought by the Missouri NAACP and several state residents, who contended that the state’s voter identification rules burdened their ability to vote in elections. The provisions were included in a 2022 law (HB 1878) signed by GOP Gov. Mike Parsons, which requires eligible Missouri electors to provide an approved form of photo ID in order to vote.

Beetem ruled that plaintiffs lack standing to bring the case, specifically noting how the individual challengers “have not provided sufficient evidence that they are harmed by HB 1878’s voter ID provisions.” Organizational plaintiffs, he added, “have not satisfied the test for organizational standing or harm to their proprietary interests.”

The Missouri judge noted that even if the left-wing plaintiffs “did have standing, HB 1878 was passed in response to a 2016 constitutional amendment authorizing voter ID, and the law is consistent with that constitutional provision.”

“The voter ID provisions of HB 1878 do not violate the fundamental right to vote or the equal protection clause of the Missouri Constitution: on the contrary, stemming from a Constitutional amendment, they protect the fundamental right to vote by deterring difficult to detect forms of voter fraud,” Beetem wrote. “The photo ID requirement does not impose a ‘severe’ burden under Weinschenk, and is narrowly tailored to advance what even Weinschenk admits is the State’s compelling interest in deterring voter fraud.”

The court previously dismissed the lawsuit in October 2023 after determining plaintiffs “failed to allege either standing or a legally protectable interest,” according to Beetem.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey celebrated the court’s decision in a Monday X post, calling it a “HUGE win for election security.”

“We went to court, we put on the evidence, and radical activists working to undermine our elections FAILED,” Bailey wrote.

[READ: Exclusive: Texas, Georgia Election Data Shatters Democrats’ Voter ID Lies]

Monday’s ruling is the latest in a string of legal defeats for radical left-wing activists seeking to undermine voter ID requirements and the integrity of elections.

Earlier this month, a California judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Democrat-run state against Huntington Beach’s voter ID law. The lawsuit was filed after Huntington Beach voters approved such requirements for local elections during the state’s March 2024 primaries.

Leftist legal challenges to New Hampshire and Ohio’s respective voter ID laws have also failed in recent years.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.