Opinion -- Missouri Needs Voter ID

by Shane Scholler
GOP Candidate, Secretary of State

While Missouri conservatives work to protect the integrity of voting and elections, the Obama Justice Department is making yet another election-year effort to block more trustworthy elections.

In Florida, the liberal Obama Justice Department wants to derail Florida’s effort to remove unlawful names from the voter rolls. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder – whose own ballot was famously handed to an impostor who wasn’t asked to show ID – is way out front as an opponent of better voter ID. His agency recently warned Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner to stop removing dead voters from the state’s voter lists. Officials in Florida had uncovered 2,700 suspect registrations, and were checking these registrations. In response, Florida has said it will keep doing what it takes to clean up its voter rolls, so a court fight may be in store.

Meanwhile, here in Missouri, the 2012 Republican state convention voted to adopt a commonsense platform plank that every voter should be protected from having their ballot cancelled by voting fraud elsewhere.

In Missouri, we should wait no longer to establish solid ballot protection through photo ID for voters. No voter should be disenfranchised by voter fraud, inaccurate tallies or faulty voting equipment. As Secretary of State, I’ll work to enhance voter identification requirements to protect each voter, and other election systems.

If I am elected Secretary of State, my top priority will be protecting Missouri elections through common sense reforms like Voter ID.

Voter ID is a common-sense idea broadly supported by the public. It has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. In state after state, voter ID encounters partisan obstruction from liberal members of the Democrat Party.

Voter fraud is a true threat to the sanctity of American elections.  A Pew report release earlier this year indicated that more than 1.8 million dead people remain on voter rolls throughout the nation, and nearly 3 million people are registered to vote in two or more states. Missourians need a Secretary of State who will be a sincere and committed guardian of fair elections. The first step in this work should be photo ID at the polls, a form of ID used throughout society every day, for cashing a check and countless other routine tasks.

I look forward to the honor of helping to ensure honest elections and reforming Missouri’s outdated laws in order to protect the rights and freedom of every voter.